Caroline Jones: I’d like to thank every Member involved in bringing about this debate today. As highlighted by the motion, bowel cancer is one of Wales’s biggest killers. It's the fourth most common cancer in the UK, with one in 14 men and one in every 19 women developing the cancer in their lifetime. Almost 16,000 people die from bowel cancer in the UK every year, and many of those deaths could be...
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, last week, the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales was appointed to the national criminal justice board and has vowed to fight to have policing devolved to Wales, saying that the time was right and that the policy was supported by all police and crime commissioners in Wales. Do you support this stance taken by your two police and crime...
Caroline Jones: Thank you.
Caroline Jones: Thank you for your answer, First Minister. Since their creation, the police and crime commissioners' budget has skyrocketed. The Labour PCC for south Wales indeed has a budget of £1.3 million and 28 staff, plus a deputy commissioner. So, this has meant an increase of 40 per cent in the budget and double the amount of staff, yet, in the last three years, there has been a 33 per cent increase...
Caroline Jones: Thank you. The role of the police and crime commissioner was meant to bring local accountability to the police service, however the majority of the Welsh public appear to be disengaged at the polling booths, and the figures are barely in double figures when people vote for police and crime commissioners. There are elections in less than two years, so what can be done to increase participation...
Caroline Jones: Yes, they will be, but if it was devolved.
Caroline Jones: Thank you for your statement, Minister. The Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016 and the wider Social Services and Well-Being (Wales) Act 2014 are amongst the greatest achievements of this institution. The RISC Act should ensure that the appalling abuse exposed by Operation Jasmine can never happen again. We are ensuring that all those who work in the care sector have the...
Caroline Jones: 3. Will the Cabinet Secretary outline how the Welsh Government's social care policy supports disabled people? OAQ52233
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. Cabinet Secretary, two weeks ago, the former head of the NHS counter fraud service warned that not enough was being done to tackle fraud in our NHS, and that as much as £200 million a year, or 3 per cent of the budget, is being lost because of fraud. The scale is appalling when you consider that, each year, we lose the equivalent of two and a half times the total new...
Caroline Jones: Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. I welcome the fact that there is zero tolerance to fraud within the NHS in Wales. Last month, two former employees of a GP surgery in Newport were convicted of fraudulently filing prescriptions and ordered to pay back thousands of pounds to the NHS. Cabinet Secretary, what further steps can be taken to prevent this type of fraud, which costs the...
Caroline Jones: I'm pleased to hear that, Cabinet Secretary. I have in the past raised the issue of European health insurance card fraud, and at the time you said you didn't believe it affected our NHS. However, journalists working for national newspapers revealed how easy it was to obtain a card in someone else's name. Cards were obtained in the name of Theresa May, Jeremy Hunt and Donald Trump. According...
Caroline Jones: Thank you, Minister. As you're no doubt aware, one of my constituents, Paul Davies, an inspirational paralympian, is struggling to train for Tokyo 2020 because of a lack of support from his local authority social services department. Unless Paul gets the help he needs to attend training sessions, he will not qualify and not only will Wales lose one of its medal hopefuls, but we will be...
Caroline Jones: I would like to thank the Petitions Committee for their report and the 7,171 people who raised the petition regarding marine licence 12/45/ML. I, like the petitioners and thousands of other people across Wales, am deeply concerned about the plans by the French nuclear energy company to dump irradiated sediment off our coast. The south Wales coast is a very important ecosystem—home to a...
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, the plans for the new Wales and borders franchise are very promising and a clear demonstration of what can be achieved by a true public-private partnership. The investment that will be pumped into our rail network over the next decade could not be achieved by the public sector alone. The biggest transformation will be in the south-east of Wales, with the metro...
Caroline Jones: Thank you very much. Thank you for highlighting how the whole of Wales will benefit. Staying with the new franchise, I'm glad to see the commitment to retaining onboard toilets on all existing trains, and I hope that they will be fully accessible. There was little in the Cabinet Secretary's written statement about the accessibility of rail services other than on the south-east metro. We...
Caroline Jones: Thank you for that, First Minister. The new franchise holders, KeolisAmey, have indicated that half of all new trains will be assembled in Wales, and I ask: will they be built with Welsh steel? With the Trump administration's tariffs on steel, the Port Talbot steelworks stand to lose 10 per cent of their business, and with the electrification to Swansea abandoned, and it being all but...
Caroline Jones: Will the Cabinet Secretary outline the benefits that the new rail franchise will bring to passengers in South Wales West?
Caroline Jones: According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, nearly a third of all graduates, and two thirds of those studying law, end up in jobs paying less than £20,000 a year, and while graduates are less likely to be unemployed, many end up working in sectors where their degree is irrelevant. We have to ensure that the costs associated with achieving a degree do not outweigh the...
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, last week, there were some comments in the media with regard to English prisoners in Welsh prisons. Normally, I wouldn't raise this as a matter because the issue of prisons is not devolved to Wales. However, these comments allegedly came from a member of your Government. The Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services is believed to have said...
Caroline Jones: Thank you for clarifying that, First Minister. As you've rightly said, we have no women's prison in Wales and not a single category A prison. In fact, the prisons are severely overcrowded in Wales. Wales has 4,747 prisoners and only, across the five prisons, has an operational capacity of 3,700. So, a large number of Welsh prisoners are incarcerated in prisons hundreds of miles from home....
