Mark Drakeford: The focus of our Transforming Towns programme is the sustainable growth of our town centres, with investments including improved green space; reuse of derelict buildings into community hubs; increasing the variety of services on offer in towns and access to services and leisure.
Mark Drakeford: The Minister for Economy provided a written update on 2 March on the enterprise zone programme and governance structure. Enterprise zones, including Anglesey, will remain a component of our place based approach to economic development. Work will continue with added focus for a more prosperous, equal and greener Wales.
Mark Drakeford: Cancer services were designated an essential service at the start of the pandemic and wherever possible we have maintained and prioritised cancer services throughout. We are now supporting the NHS to deliver more cancer diagnoses and treatment, and have made recovery in cancer services a key focus of health board planning.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, there are no plans to remove any services from Withybush, including its A&E provision, prior to any wider changes that there may be made in health services in that part of Wales. I urge anybody who has an interest in the future of those services to engage directly with the health board, with its clinicians who are responsible for the development of plans that will put health services...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, the health board has developed a plan for the future of services in the Hywel Dda area over the next 20 years. That strategy was developed with clinicians, patients and through consultation with the wider public. A programme business case was recently submitted to the Welsh Government for scrutiny.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I thank James Evans for that question. It was very good to have this question, with St David's Day falling on a Tuesday this year. And it does provide a genuine platform for us to be able to raise the profile and awareness of Wales. I was very pleased myself to begin the day, quite early on this morning, in signing a memorandum of understanding with the Governor of Ōita province in...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for that question, Llywydd. The Welsh Government uses our national day as a platform to raise the profile and awareness of Wales across the world. Today alone, events will take place in Tokyo, Dublin, London, Washington, Brussels, Dubai, Beijing and Bangalore.
Mark Drakeford: I thank Heledd Fychan for that question. It is true that the number of vets from the European Union here in the UK has fallen, and has fallen by 68 per cent between 2019 and 2021. Now, we are doing many things here in Wales. We have a new school at Aberystwyth University, and we are funding young people through our Seren programme, particularly young people from the Rhondda and other similar...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Heledd Fychan for the question, Llywydd. Most vets in Wales work in private practice, operating as private businesses. Some, by contract, also provide important public services. The Welsh Government provides a range of direct and indirect support, reflecting this diversity of veterinary provision.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I agree entirely with Adam Price that we've by no means exhausted the actions that need to be taken. Russia continues to earn $1 billion a day from the sale of gas and oil into Europe, and, at the same time, Ukraine is paying, as the Member said, $0.5 billion in servicing its debt, again to the west. And in the circumstances we are seeing, surely that cannot be right. And on...
Mark Drakeford: Well, I think it's incumbent on all parts of the United Kingdom to press for the highest level of economic sanctions, and alongside economic sanctions, those other forms of action in the fields of the arts and in sports, and other forms of contact—the highest form of barrier to those continuing, in order to, as we've said many times on the floor this afternoon, make sure that the message...
Mark Drakeford: I entirely agree with the last point that the leader of Plaid Cymru has made, Llywydd. The UK Government has moved to prevent access to UK ports by vessels using the Russian flag, and it did so because there was a vessel about to embark in Scotland under those circumstances. I think it is inevitable, Llywydd, that in such a very fast-moving picture, when Governments take one action, attempts...
Mark Drakeford: It is a terrifying prospect that the Member outlines, but he's right to do so, because, unthinkable only a few weeks ago, we have to think about what would happen if a NATO state were to be attacked in the way that Ukraine has been. We talk here about countries the same size as Wales—of Estonia and Lithuania, countries that now have the NATO protection around them but that sit right on the...
Mark Drakeford: Personally, Llywydd, I think we will need a different system. We were very proud to welcome families from Afghanistan to Wales, and as Members here will know, many of them lived when they first came here just across the road, literally, from the Senedd in the Urdd building. It's been one of the great pleasures for me in recent times, from the office that I work in here, outside my window, to...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the leader of the opposition for what he said about his party's support for the efforts that will be made to welcome refugees here in Wales. I know that's very sincerely meant by him personally and on behalf of his party. I welcome it. I think his question is a very difficult one to answer at this moment. As he says, the displacement of population from Ukraine is currently being felt...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, well, it is a requirement of 'Planning Policy Wales' that, in drawing up plans, a local authority must take into account the latest Welsh Government local authority level housing projections for Wales, and as Rhys ab Owen has said, the latest projections are lower than when the original Cardiff local development plan was drawn up. But as well as those projections, a local authority...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, this is a matter for Cardiff city council. The council discharges its responsibility to produce an up-to-date local development plan with the framework set out by the Welsh Government.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, the men's sheds movement in Wales has been a remarkable success, growing sometimes from very local and enthusiastic individuals to what is now a movement to be found in so many parts of Wales, and a very important movement it is. We know that men are particularly vulnerable to suicide at different points in their lives, and men's sheds provide an opportunity for people to come...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for that question, Llywydd. I agree with him about the importance of the work that the Samaritans do in all parts of Wales—the Samaritans in our capital city, based in my own constituency—and a remarkable service based almost entirely around volunteers that they provide to people, sometimes in the most desperate of circumstances. I agree with what the Member said about...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I thank Sarah Murphy for that, and I congratulate all those of her constituents who are involved in that initiative in Bridgend. It reminds us of the importance of third sector and voluntary activity in the mental health field, backed up, of course, by investment from the Welsh Government. The mental health part of the health budget remains the highest area of spending in the...