David Rowlands: ...are closed courts, including the exclusion of journalists, means there is no independent scrutiny of the judicial procedures. There are also many obstacles for families in securing good legal representation as there may be conflicts of interests where large practices are often engaged on local authority business. The removal of a child from its natural parents is a traumatic event, both...
Rebecca Evans: Again, thank you to Dai Lloyd for raising this particular issue. I will certainly explore it myself to better understand the issue. I know that you'll also be making those important representations to the Home Office in respect of their deportation processes and so on, but I'll certainly gather some further information.
Angela Burns: ...very sad and demoralising situations within the NHS—. That initial legislation, when it first came in, as introduced by your Cabinet colleague Kirsty Williams, was groundbreaking. But we've done nothing to build on it, and we've done nothing to really take it forward. Now this supports a recommendation in the health committee. This was a recommendation where we took an awful lot of...
Caroline Jones: ...would be lost by scrapping the CHCs and replacing them with a small national body with an office in Cardiff, for example. If the new body is to truly be the voice of the citizens it has to have representation in all parts of Wales and be accessible to everybody, regardless of where they live in Wales.
Group 14: Citizen Voice Body — representations to public bodies (Amendments 41, 76, 1, 42, 77)
Elin Jones: This brings us to group 14, which relates to representations to public bodies by the citizen voice body. The lead amendment in this group is amendment 41, I call on Angela Burns to move the amendment and speak to the other amendments in the group. Angela Burns.
Angela Burns: ...Helen Mary Jones with my full support. It's in line with committee recommendation 13 at Stage 1. During our evidence sessions, it became very apparent that the body should be able to make representations to Welsh Ministers as this would enable the body to become actively involved in and influence the design of future health and care systems in particular. The board of community health...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Our amendments here specify that not only should Welsh Ministers be able to be recipients of representation by the CVB, as is proposed by the Conservatives, but that if they do receive representation the Government then has to provide a response. So, I would ask the Conservatives to perhaps look at ours as an improvement on their amendment—or at the very least, if your amendments fall, that...
Caroline Jones: ...citizen voice body must be heard. The community health councils have been an effective champion for Welsh patients, in part, because of their right to be heard. Public bodies have to take notice of representations made by CHCs. The amendments tabled by Angela and Rhun extend this duty to the citizen voice body. If this new body is to be our voice, public bodies should have to listen to...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Llywydd. All of the amendments in this group relate to representations being made by the citizen voice body and the response that should be provided to them, but they, of course, have different permutations. And I do want to make clear again that, despite the language being used, refusing to agree to amendments 42 or 77 are not examples or evidence of bad faith, or a deliberate...
Vaughan Gething: Can I just refer to amendment 42(6)? 'As soon as reasonably practicable, the recipient of the representation must publish the response prepared under subsection (4) on their website'. That leaves no room for any discretion whatsoever; the word 'must' in this drafting is very clear and unambiguous.
Vaughan Gething: ...NHS bodies and local authorities to conduct a joint investigation into concerns raised under the NHS complaints procedure and under the social services complaints procedure regulations. That does not cover the large number of social services complaints made by children under the Representations Procedures (Wales) Regulations 2014, nor does it take account of complaints that are made...
Vaughan Gething: ...to any refusal made by an NHS body or local authority. I think Members can understand that it would be possible to refuse information requests on a variety of bases, for example, the request may not be reasonable and the response should set out what is unreasonable about it; the request may not be related to the exercise of the citizen voice body’s functions; or it could be potentially...
Angela Burns: ...members of Healthwatch would need to go on a training course' before they started visiting hospitals. So, for us, we want to make sure that this is on the face of the Bill to ensure that there's not just a continuation, but a reinforcing and an underpinning of the importance of advising and training our volunteers and staff. There's been much play during the course of this Bill that we...
Helen Mary Jones: 3. What legal representations has the Counsel General made on behalf of the Welsh Government in support of the Backto60 appeal about the alleged mishandling of raising the state pension age for women born in the 1950s? OAQ55205
Helen Mary Jones: ..., and that that Government talks a lot about levelling up and about fairness, would the Counsel General consider, perhaps with the Deputy Minister with responsibility for equalities, making further representations to the appropriate Minister at Westminster and perhaps looking again at whether or not there may be some contribution that we could make, perhaps by way of evidence, to the...
Jeremy Miles: The Member certainly is not sanguine, nor are we on these benches, as she generously accepts in her question. As she will know from our previous exchanges in the Chamber in relation to this, we have sought every opportunity to put our perspective on behalf of women in Wales to the UK Government and have frequently received responses that we have put in the public domain. She will herself, I'm...
Mandy Jones: ..., recommended a programme of proper political education as part of the curriculum. Has this education really been going on for long enough, as the new law has only just recently passed, and what representation has the Assembly Commission made to the Welsh Government to make this happen?
Angela Burns: Diolch, Llywydd. I'd like to thank everyone who took part in today's debate, and I'd particularly like to thank David for drawing us all together, cross party, to make representations. I think we have to be crystal clear about that word 'cancer', it is something that still today strikes fear and panic in most people's hearts. We still see it as 'the big C', the thing that can come out and get...
Andrew RT Davies: ...of the south Wales programme when it talks about delivering services for this particular part of the community that I represent as a regional member for South Wales Central. The Royal Glamorgan is not an old hospital; it’s a relatively new hospital. The surrounding area is expanding rapidly. I’ve heard the Member for Pontypridd talk of about 20,000 new houses being erected in that...
