Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I'm not aware of any such actions by the UK Government, and I will be very surprised indeed if they were prepared to take any, because they continue to block proposals for waiving intellectual property rights at the World Trade Organization. I know that Jenny Rathbone will be very well aware that it's a year—more than a year now—since South Africa and India proposed a...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, the Welsh Government supports plans to relax intellectual property rights so that patented vaccines can be made available to low-income countries to help mitigate pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have conveyed that view directly to the UK Government as responsibility for intellectual property rights remains a reserved matter.
Mark Drakeford: Well, I thank Adam Price for that important point. Of course, we have carbon dioxide monitors now available here in Wales and being deployed in schools, but there is more that can be done on ventilation. It is a very important part of the way in which we can keep one another safe. The chief medical officer and the chief nursing officer wrote out to the health service in Wales only in the last...
Mark Drakeford: Diolch, Llywydd. I was simply reiterating a point that I'd made earlier to Andrew R.T. Davies, that even if hospitalisation rates were to be lower with omicron, if the raw numbers of people falling ill with it are sharply escalated, that will by itself result in large numbers of people needing hospitalisation.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd—[Inaudible.]
Mark Drakeford: I thank the leader of Plaid Cymru for both of those points. I've had a series of opportunities in the last few days to hear from the First Minister of Scotland and to get some insight into the way in which the Scottish Government's Cabinet will be discussing these matters today. I think the approach of guidance, strong guidance, is available to us and will be something that we will wish to...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, Adam Price is quite right that the evidence on the efficacy of the two doses is not great for Pfizer or AstaZeneca—even Pfizer, in that study, is around 30 per cent protection—which is why the booster programme is so absolutely essential. Because two doses of AstraZeneca don't protect you; two doses of AstraZeneca and a booster takes that protection up to over 70 per cent....
Mark Drakeford: Well, I thank Andrew R.T. Davies for that, because that’s a really important point. At the most difficult part of this spectrum, we could see largely elevated numbers of people needing help from health and social care services meeting a service where there are fewer people available to provide the help that is needed, because those members of staff will be exposed to the impact of the...
Mark Drakeford: Well, of course, the leader of the opposition is absolutely right in that. Our offer is the same as it is anywhere in the United Kingdom—it is to make sure that, by the end of this month, everybody’s had an offer. The offer will extend into the new year to the shortest possible extent. But that is not entirely in the hands of the Government, because there are two things in play here....
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I thank Andrew R.T. Davies for that. I'm aware of the study. As he says, it's the first study of its kind, but it is inevitably—as I think that he himself suggested—therefore preliminary. It tells us something about the early period. It doesn't tell us yet about what happens as the omicron variant takes hold and as more information emerges on the progress of the disease. It's...
Mark Drakeford: Well, I agree with the Member that there are opportunities for Cardiff as a local authority in doing what I know the local authority itself wants to do, and that is to diversify the policies that it has in place and to provide better services for its own residents, and indeed, potentially, to be able to provide services for others as well. I think I ought to explain, Llywydd, that a fining...
Mark Drakeford: Thank you for those supplementary questions. Cardiff Council is working hard to do more to get their recycling rates to the place where we would all want to see them. There will be a new strategy before the cabinet in Cardiff Council this week and, as I’m sure the Member knows, they are going to pilot a number of new approaches in Cardiff West, which I represent. In Radyr and Llandaff, in...
Mark Drakeford: Thank you to Rhys ab Owen for the question. Ministers and officials have had direct discussions with Cardiff Council on their recycling performance, and those discussions are ongoing.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I thank Darren Millar for those questions. I know what a close interest he takes in flood and coastal erosion issues in his constituency, and I know that, in his own personal history, he has direct experience of what it is to be flooded, so I know he brings a great deal of passion and expertise to these issues. I'm very glad that the Welsh Government has been able to review the...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, flood defence adequacy is assessed by Natural Resources Wales and local authorities in Wales. They then plan, promote and deliver schemes to reduce flood risk in their areas. The Welsh Government sets national policy and provides funding, including £5.24 million for schemes in Clwyd West in this financial year.
Mark Drakeford: The Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board currently employs historically high numbers of staff, despite a challenging recruitment market nationally and internationally. This means more doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and healthcare scientists delivering services for the people of north Wales.
Mark Drakeford: This information is not held centrally.
Mark Drakeford: Well, I entirely disagree. I think there was a substantive point at the end there, and, I'm afraid, the Member has got it completely wrong. I am very proud of the fact that we are committed to eliminating the pursuit of private profit in the care of children here in Wales. I have a vivid memory of the report that the children's commissioner prepared for us, when a young woman talks about the...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Deputy Llywydd, I thank Sioned Williams, and I agree that we are lucky in Wales to have a number of agencies in the third sector and people who undertake research who help us to create policies that are appropriate for the challenges we face in Wales, and, of course, the purpose of those bodies is to pressure us to do more. And that's great, isn't it? We're lucky to have people who are...
Mark Drakeford: Dirprwy Lywydd, I can honestly say that I didn't know Rhianon Passmore was behind me during the statement—otherwise, I would have made even more of the investment that Jeremy Miles announced in music services. I'm sure I'm very far from the only Member of the Senedd who was given an instrument in school to try out, to see whether I would go on—as I then did, to learn to play the clarinet....
