Angela Burns: You're absolutely right, Cabinet Secretary, we can't force people to take part in consultations. But picking up from the point that David Rees made, there are an enormous number of really good ways of engaging people at a grass-roots level and really taking the temperature of proposed changes. Organisations such as INVOLVE, who run consultations in England—they work very hard with local...
Angela Burns: Will the Cabinet Secretary outline what considerations are given to screening patients who are at a higher risk of contracting neuroendocrine tumours, such as relatives of sufferers or patients who suffer from rare family syndromes such as multiple endocrine neoplasia or Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, because in all of those there's been a very clear genetic link established? I just wonder if...
Angela Burns: 4. What discussions has the Welsh Government had with public sector bodies to improve the handling of historical sex abuse cases? OAQ51725
Angela Burns: Thank you, First Minister. I do appreciate the devolved limitations surrounding this question, but in my role as an Assembly constituency Member, I am currently dealing with a number of cases of historical sex abuse, and I am having to talk to, on a regular basis, some very, very hurt and traumatised people. On a number of occasions, there appears to be an absolute marked reluctance by the...
Angela Burns: It's not just Caldey island.
Angela Burns: Cabinet Secretary, thank you very much for bringing forward this statement about the chief medical officer's report. I do welcome this report today. I believe it clearly lays bare the challenges of ensuring that we all age well. It's great news to see the increases in longevity—I, for one, am very grateful to see that—but we must also recognise that over a quarter of the Welsh population...
Angela Burns: Can I thank the Cabinet Secretary for bringing the statement forward today? I think that repeating information is the bane of a patient's life and a common cause for complaint, and I do believe that digital technology, used in the right way, will certainly help to take our health service into the twenty-first century. I believe that more and more people want to take ownership of their own...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd like to thank the Presiding Officer, and I welcome very much this debate today. I would also like to place on record the formal thanks of the Welsh Conservatives to Laura McAllister and her team. We're very grateful for the engagement that has occurred with political representatives, and the Welsh Conservatives will be supporting the motion before us...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The Welsh Conservatives will not be supporting this motion. The Welsh Conservatives believe that we should not pre-empt the views of the people of Wales by closing down options, such as your motion does. The Welsh Conservatives believe we should enable and support the Assembly Commission to conduct a thorough and inclusive consultation process. And the...
Angela Burns: Will the First Minister provide an update on Welsh Government action to support the transgender community in Wales?
Angela Burns: I'd like to thank the Cabinet Secretary for his statement today. Your opening paragraph I couldn't agree with more. I too would like to add my thanks and recognition of the hard work that not just the NHS staff do, but also all those who work within social services and within the care sector, to help us get through what is traditionally a very, very difficult time of the year. I welcome the...
Angela Burns: When you've got 46 A&E consultants who have penned a letter to the First Minister, saying that the safety risks are unacceptable, then we should be very critical about how we handle the winter. When you had, during the height of the winter demand, at Swansea's Morriston Hospital, personal assistants, IT staff and managers called upon to chase up scan results and even medication to help reduce...
Angela Burns: 7. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on the progress of the Swansea Bay city deal? OAQ51756
Angela Burns: Diolch, Llywydd. Firstly, may I apologise both to you and to the Cabinet Secretary for missing my earlier question? Cabinet Secretary, as the species champion for the greater horseshoe bat, can you assure me that in this consultation on the new planning policy for Wales there will be adequate weight given to protecting endangered species whilst, of course, not stopping necessary planning and...
Angela Burns: Cabinet Secretary, I am a great supporter of the city deal, and I believe that the real benefit will not just be in the 11 projects that have been selected to go forward, but in the economic climate that that infrastructure will create, and the multiple small projects and alternative projects that can come off the back of it. In Pembrokeshire, the Pembroke Dock marine has been put forward as...
Angela Burns: To be honest with you, what I was going to say I think both Dai and Lynne have covered extremely well. So, my message to you, Minister, is along these lines: when I took part in this committee inquiry, I was absolutely staggered to understand just how big this problem is. Not very long ago, we passed a public health Bill, and we talked about trying to make people slimmer and fitter, and...
Angela Burns: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm delighted to move the motion tabled today by the Welsh Conservatives on the subject of mental health. This issue is one that will affect many of us during our lifetime, either directly or through close family and friends, and I'd like to start my contribution by saying thank you to those Members who have raised their personal experiences...
Angela Burns: There are many reasons for mental health conditions becoming evident. In some cases, adverse childhood experiences, known as ACEs, can lead to mental health problems later in life, and there are explicit links to drug dependency and thus early death. A single instance of an adverse childhood experience can be traumatic, but often we see adults who have had to deal with multiple cases in their...
Angela Burns: Will you take an intervention? Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for taking an intervention. I absolutely recognise the approach you're taking in responding to this, but I would like to ask you for your view on the provision of crisis care centres, because people are not nine-to-five robots and people do have mental health issues out of hours and at weekends. You've just talked about access to...
Angela Burns: The stay well survey actually, I thought, showed a population that was very keen to take part in responsible healthcare and understood that prevention is better than cure, and showed an enormous maturity on behalf of the public, something we tend to talk down sometimes, I think, here. And one of the things that they really picked up was that 76 per cent of the respondents wanted to see health...
