Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I'm in no doubt at all that the Member spends more of his time looking at those social media posts than I do. What I can tell him, of course, is that the Welsh Government, through the international strategy, is busy every day in making sure that Wales is promoted abroad and that we use our national day as a platform on which we can do more to make sure that the profile of Wales,...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for that question, Llywydd. Since the publication of the international strategy, we have published a series of action plans and reinforced our relationships with key international partners. We regularly review priorities against the international strategy as we move into a world beyond coronavirus.
Mark Drakeford: Well, there are some aspects of what the Member said that I can agree with, Llywydd. We've just had the second independent investigation report published; I just don't see where the merit lies in piling investigation upon investigation. What we need is action on the basis of the reports that we now have in front of us. The point that I feel I can agree with is when Rhun ap Iorwerth says that...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, a number of points there. It's important to put on the record the fact that up to half of the 44 cases investigated by the Royal College of Surgeons long predate the reorganisation of the services; these are cases that span from 2014 to 2021. The Member, I think, does a disservice, again this week, in mixing up those two issues together. The way in which services have been...
Mark Drakeford: 'I am also sure the situation has not been helped by relentlessly negative public discourse which has overshadowed any positive impacts of the service reconfiguration and had the potential to impact on staff morale. This is something that was noted in the first RCS report.'
Mark Drakeford: No, I don't agree with that at all, Llywydd. I recall the questions asked by Mabon ap Gwynfor and I recall the responses—the careful responses—that I gave to those questions last week. I still believe what I said a week ago. What has happened with the reorganisation of the service is something that was necessary. The way that it has been done isn't acceptable, but as Eluned Morgan said in...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, it may be because I'm taking part remotely that what I said wasn't able to be heard sufficiently well. What I said was—
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, that is exactly what I did say, that I had no difficulty in apologising, and I'm sure the leader of the opposition will recognise that. I'm afraid I just cannot agree with him that the best way in which services for people in north Wales could be strengthened, in the way that I think right across the Chamber we would wish to see, would be to embark upon the turmoil of a radical...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I have no difficulty in apologising. I don't share the same standards as the Conservative Party, where the Prime Minister refuses to apologise time and time again for the things for which he has been so directly responsible. I have apologised in the past for the failings of the health board in north Wales, and the Welsh Government has taken a series of measures to assist the health...
Mark Drakeford: I do not regard any of that as acceptable, Llywydd; of course I don't. The findings of those 44 cases that were reviewed by the Royal College of Surgeons are very disappointing, and they are—as Andrew R.T. Davies illustrated in his answer—errors that were made by clinical staff failing to observe what seem to me to be basic standards of professional practice. When you read that there were...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I thank Peter Fox for that. He talks about a package of support. I think I've already explained that the help with fuel bills is help that just allows you to defer the bill. It doesn't give you any money; it just means you don't have to pay all of it up front. He speaks of 'urgent' help, and that help will arrive with all the urgency that next October brings. There was a tiny...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I completely agree with Huw Irranca-Davies that that is the inevitable result of the mismanagement of the UK economy—that the costs of that mismanagement will be loaded onto those people who can least afford to bear that burden. Can I just pick up two points from the many powerful points that the Member made? I'm very glad that he made reference to the Way2Work programme,...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for that question, Llywydd. We have repeatedly called on the UK Government to act to prevent the crisis for which they are themselves responsible. A decade of austerity has left many more people in poverty and unable to manage the situation in which they now find themselves.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I think Delyth Jewell has made those points very forcefully and I agree with them all. The 'Levelling Up' White Paper is a friendless document, even by the Secretary of State whose name is on the cover. Its attempt to range far and wide across the mists of time is simply, I think, an indication of the lack of real content that there was there for this, despite the fact that...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, thank you very much to Paul Davies for what he said, as Chair of the committee, and I look forward to the work that the committee will be doing to assist all of us to make the case to the Treasury to do what the Conservatives said in their manifesto during the general election. I don't think that there is any doubt now that they have rolled back from what they promised, and the...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I think it is just worth reminding everybody what the Conservative Party said in their manifesto at the general election of December 2019, and which was repeated by them in the comprehensive spending review announcements of October last year. This is what they said: 'The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will at a minimum' —at a minimum, Llywydd— 'match the size of EU Funds in all...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, Wales will receive substantially less funding from the UK Government in comparison with what we have received from the European Union and would have received under the current round of structural funding. The absolute guarantee that Wales would be not a penny worse off has been comprehensively broken and abandoned.
Mark Drakeford: Our winter fuel support scheme increased last week to £61 million as we doubled the payment to vulnerable households to £200. The so-called upfront rebate offered by the UK Government won’t take effect until six months after the energy price increase, and will do little to impact the immediate cost-of-living crisis.
Mark Drakeford: Our PDG access grant goes direct to families for the purchase of uniform, sports kit and other extra-curricular activity resources. We have increased funding again this year to over £14 million, allowing us to fund eligible pupils in every school year in primary and secondary schools.
Mark Drakeford: The manifesto on which the Member and I stood for election last May contained a commitment to ban the use of snares in Wales. Our intention is that it should be contained in the agriculture Bill that the Government will bring before the Senedd in our first year legislative programme.
