Mark Drakeford: During business questions last week the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs agreed to issue a written statement on mobile animal exhibits, including circuses, before the spring half term recess.
Mark Drakeford: A sub-group of the heart conditions implementation group is overseeing progress against the objectives in the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest plan. The return of spontaneous circulation pathway is already being implemented. A workshop with stakeholders on CPR and defibrillator objectives was also held in December.
Mark Drakeford: I expect health boards in mid Wales to provide safe and effective GP out of hours services to respond to urgent healthcare needs when GP surgeries are closed.
Mark Drakeford: The Welsh Government currently has no plans to formally review the NHS Wales escalation and intervention arrangements agreed with HIW and WAO. All parties to the process feel that, in its initial three years, it has operated effectively and aided our work in targeting improvement support and action.
Mark Drakeford: On the 12 December, the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport published a policy statement about improving the accessibility and inclusivity of public transport in Wales, including local bus services.
Mark Drakeford: Although we expect that the liquidation of Carillion will have little direct impact in Wales, the Welsh Government will do everything within its ability to assist Carillion staff who are affected here. Welsh Government officials continue to assess any further impacts in a situation that continues to develop swiftly.
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for what I take to be three main questions. In relation to contracts that the Welsh Government has, there is one contract—the contract in relation to the design phase of junctions 15 and 16 on the A55, which was awarded after the original warning about Carillion in July of next year. At the point that that warning was issued, the procurement process was paused, further...
Mark Drakeford: Well, the Member is right that, while the direct exposure of the Welsh public service to Carillion is modest, that does not mean to say that there aren't businesses and subcontractors in Wales who, in the other aspects of Carillion's work, may well now find themselves exposed as a result of Carillion's demise. So, officials of the Welsh Government are carrying out the necessary work to try to...
Mark Drakeford: Wel, Llywydd, successive Welsh Governments have not been prepared to follow the model that Mick Antoniw has just outlined. We have always been alert to the dangers of a way of conducting business in which profit is privatised and risk is socialised, and that's exactly what you've seen in this example. Here is a company that, from public money, has been giving dividends to its shareholders,...
Mark Drakeford: Well, I fully appreciate the points that Janet Finch-Saunders has made. Carillion was contracted in the design phase only, so far, of junctions 15 and 16 of the A55, and there would have been about 12 months of that design work still to go. The Welsh Government will look to see whether there are ways in which we can respond to these difficulties in a way that does not lead to that timetable...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Simon Thomas for those additional questions.
Mark Drakeford: Just to be clear in relation to junctions 15 and 16 of the A55, the whole business of awarding a contract had been completed before the profits warning on 10 July, but contract letters had not been sent out to the company. So, at that point, the sending out of award letters was withheld, and a further set of investigations were carried out with Carillion plc to determine if they were risks...
Mark Drakeford: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I propose the Welsh Government's final budget proposals for 2018-19 onwards, as tabled before the National Assembly for Wales on 19 December. I would like to pay particular thanks to members of the Finance Committee and the Chair, Simon Thomas, for their careful work in scrutinising this budget. This is the first time for many centuries that we in Wales...
Mark Drakeford: Dirprwy Lywydd, that budget quite certainly did not produce a windfall for Wales or go far to put right eight years of resource starvation. Our budget, when financial transaction capital funding is excluded, remains 7 per cent lower in real terms than a decade ago. This Government's job is to use every lever available to us to protect our citizens and services from the damage that austerity...
Mark Drakeford: Well, I can offer the Member two estimates. Had our budget simply remained the same, in real terms, today as it was nearly a decade ago, with no growth at all in the resources to us, we would have £1.1 billion more to invest in this budget than we see today. Had our budget simply grown in line with growth in the economy—something that every Government from 1945 to 2010 achieved, through...
Mark Drakeford: Diolch yn fawr, Lywydd. Well, budget debates are always interesting for the way that they expose ideological differences across the floor of the Chamber. I think we'll remember Neil Hamilton's contribution, a man for whom austerity has not nearly gone far enough, who regards the UK Government as lily livered and living in an era of gross overexpenditure, and in which every investment the...
Mark Drakeford: But, Llywydd, everything that I have mentioned was created by borrowing. All of those things relied upon the willingness of previous generations to borrow to invest in the future that we enjoy today, and we have a similar obligation to do that for the people who will come after us. Now, I don't suppose that Nick Ramsay, for a minute, goes along with the arguments that Mr Hamilton put out, but...
Mark Drakeford: Of course, Llywydd, I welcome the fact that we are only 20 per cent worse off rather than 30 per cent worse off, and that's why we're determined to make the best use we can of every penny that we have.
Mark Drakeford: On the other side of the Chamber, of course, I welcome the comments made by Adam Price. Of course, we are here to work together in a constructive manner when we want to make a difference for the people of Wales. That's the way that people with ideas for the future can come together and work on those areas where we can see the impact that they will have in the future. I look forward to having...
Mark Drakeford: Can I also welcome, of course, what Vikki Howells, Mike Hedges and Jane Hutt said, each one of them illustrating the fact that what this budget sets out to achieve makes a difference in the daily lives of people in all parts of Wales? It's a budget, as Jane Hutt said, for priorities and principles: the progressive principles of this Government, the priorities of the people here in Wales. It's...
