Angela Burns: Cabinet Secretary, I know you will agree with me that resolving attachment issues is absolutely crucial for ensuring that young people or young children can grow up to be well-rounded individuals. In the last Assembly, the children and young people committee did a very hard-hitting report on adoption and post-adoption support. A lot of children who are adopted or who are about to be adopted...
Angela Burns: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the Welsh Government’s progress in bringing forward a long-term solution to the high cost of medical insurance facing Welsh GPs? (TAQ0053)
Angela Burns: Cabinet Secretary, I do not doubt your commitment to finding an answer. The trouble is that you’ve been looking for that answer for over two years, if not longer. You offer no timeline, no end date and no commitment to a state-backed solution and no answers. The issue at hand is that GPs have to pay for two elements of insurance. There’s a relatively stable set rate for professional...
Angela Burns: I’d like to thank Bethan Jenkins for bringing forward this debate on safeguarding and patients’ rights in the Welsh NHS. And the reason why I wanted to make a contribution was that, in January 2012, I did a short debate that was entitled ‘Does the Welsh Government have a moral responsibility to seek to protect whistle blowers in all walks of life?’ Because one of the incidents—and...
Angela Burns: Sorry.
Angela Burns: But, these people should have that right, because without them to act as a check and balance on our public services, we will have more of these awful, appalling instances in the future.
Angela Burns: Thank you, Minister, for bringing forward your statement today and bringing forward the aims and objectives of this Bill. There’s no doubt about it, alcohol addiction is a pernicious social evil, and it is an excuse to abuse others as well as oneself. It is something where I agree with you totally, towards the end of your statement, when you said that Wales needs to redefine its...
Angela Burns: 6. What studies has the Welsh Government undertaken on the potential impact of any taxes it is considering introducing during the fifth Assembly? (OAQ51236)
Angela Burns: Cabinet Secretary, thank you for that answer. On page 23 of the Welsh Government tax policy report, there is a boast that there was a considerable public response to the call for ideas about proposals for new taxes. Figures in the same report show that you had the sum total of 305 responses, which represents 0.009 per cent of the Welsh population. One might say that was a slight exaggeration....
Angela Burns: I’m delighted to have the opportunity to take part in this debate. In the few weeks that this idea’s been floated by the Welsh Government, I personally have received a huge amount of correspondence from businesses, individuals and trade organisations that are, without exception, against this idea. Let me be clear: I am pleased that the Assembly now has some responsibility for its taxes,...
Angela Burns: [Inaudible.]
Angela Burns: First Minister, victims of domestic abuse very often have to go into hiding or stay in shelters for inordinately long periods of time. If you look across the piece in Europe, countries such as Italy and Germany not only have much more direct and emphatic laws about removing the abuser from the marital home, rather than the abused, but they also take the view that if a family has been...
Angela Burns: I rise to support my colleague David Melding's amendments, particularly amendment 5. I don't agree with the abolition of the right to buy. I know too many people who've had the ability to buy a home, and they would never have had that chance before, but I am prepared to accept that that is a battle lost already, and I understand the ideological opposition to this. But, if you are going to do...
Angela Burns: Absolutely.
Angela Burns: No, I don't accept that at all—
Angela Burns: A suspension—well, as David's just saying, a suspension is not the same as an abolition, and the people who live in those areas now will know that they have no further chance ever of being able to buy their home. All we're asking is that they are treated the same as the people in Pembrokeshire or the people in Ceredigion, and they have that year of grace. If they buy their house, they buy...
Angela Burns: Minister, I've listened very carefully to what you have said to Darren Millar, however I do have two other points I would like to make. The first is that Dyfed-Powys Police were aware of these allegations themselves in both 2014 and again in 2016. The reason they did not move to prosecution was they said there was little point because the monk in question had since died—he'd passed away....
Angela Burns: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm delighted to be able to open the Welsh Conservative debate tabled in the name of my colleague Paul Davies. You'll see from our motion on the order paper that it can be taken in four separate points. We pay tribute to the staff, we note the Welsh Government's decision to place the health board into special measures, but we believe that those special...
Angela Burns: You'll have to be quick.
Angela Burns: The size of the board's estate is massive. It covers three district hospitals, 22 other community and acute hospitals, 19 medical centres and 121 GP practices. And, as I've known when I've driven up there, it's in a geographically pretty diverse area and it can take literally hours to get from one side to the other. However, we should also remind ourselves that, while recognising the...
