Angela Burns: First Minister, for my part, I'm quite relaxed about this, because there were 19 experts involved in this process on behalf of NRW, starting from the economist, senior statistician, wildlife management, their ornithologist, woodland and spatial ecologists, recreation, health and well-being team leader—. I won't read out all 19. Where I do have a real concern is that I believe that...
Angela Burns: Minister, I'd like to thank you very much for bringing forward this statement, and actually I want to pick up on one of the comments you made in here above all else probably: 'More people are living longer. This is one of our society’s greatest achievements, and a cause for celebration'. I'm so glad to hear those words, because so very often we talk in a pejorative way about older...
Angela Burns: Thank you for the launch of amendment 4, and I have to say to the Plaid Cymru spokesman that your argument has actually persuaded us to shift our position on that and to support it. Initially, we were not going to because we believe that our amendment 1 is, in fact, broad enough to ensure that we encapsulate and protect public houses throughout the land. However, I think you make a very...
Angela Burns: I move.
Angela Burns: Diolch, Madam Presiding Officer. I'd like to move amendment 2. We have a responsibility here, and our responsibility is not just to make law, but to make good law. And if you're going to make law, especially groundbreaking law, law that is not common in other home nations and not usually common, in fact, in Europe, then the least you can do when you've made that law is to make sure that you...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer. Cabinet Secretary, I'm completely underwhelmed by your response. In the years that I have been here as an Assembly Member, I had the pleasure of chairing the Finance Committee for a term. I've also sat on some of the very heavy-duty policy committees, namely education and health. And time and time and time and time and time again, I have found policies...
Angela Burns: We will not be supporting amendment 6. We feel that the terminology is highly subjective and is unsuitable for the face of a Bill. The Cabinet Secretary did state at Stage 2 that the Welsh Government was already working with the Welsh Retail Consortium on this issue and was awaiting Wales-specific evidence to identify the impact this legislation will have on both public health and business...
Angela Burns: Not moved.
Angela Burns: We will be supporting both amendments 7 and 8. At Stage 2, my colleague Suzy Davies raised concerns that the promotion plan was yet to be shared, which is of great concern to us, and we need to take every opportunity that we can to reinforce the public health message. We all talk about it here an awful lot; we need to start talking about it out there.
Angela Burns: I'd also like to begin my contribution, as has everyone else, with a heartfelt thank you to all of the carers of Wales who, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, are never off duty and very seldom have down time. As others have said, without them, truly, our society would grind to a halt. I was staggered by Suzy Davies's figures about the fact that the numbers of carers actually outnumber our...
Angela Burns: Of course, we do know a little bit better now what is happening in Betsi Cadwaladr, and what support the Welsh Government is offering that health board, simply because we have raised it here so many times that we've finally managed to get an answer. I wonder, now, First Minister, if you might be able to enlighten us as to the types of levels of support that the Welsh Government is offering...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Presiding Officer, although I don't know why I should thank you in some ways because this Bill makes me despair. It is here that we have yet another example of Welsh Government rushing through shoddily constructed legislation in pursuit of a policy objective that none would argue with. Indeed, the Welsh Conservatives had a commitment to enacting measures in our last manifesto to...
Angela Burns: Diolch, Llywydd. I'm pleased to move the motion tabled in the name of Paul Davies. We recognise the immense contribution made to our society by the health and social care sectors, and we want to demonstrate the need for integrated workforce planning, and put forward ideas on how to improve the recruitment and training of staff. Today's debate has four key aims, as set out in our motion....
Angela Burns: Cabinet Secretary, these issues alone further demonstrate the need for more effective health and well-being practices to be employed across the NHS in Wales. It's ironic, isn't it, that a profession that looks after sick people finds it so difficult to keep its own staff physically and mentally fit. I believe there is a very good case for NHS staff to receive rapid access to treatment and...
Angela Burns: Would you take an intervention?
Angela Burns: Thank you very much indeed, Caroline Jones, for taking the intervention. You've highlighted the case exceptionally well for why we have such a big shortage everywhere, which is why—and I'm going to read the figure out again—948 years are lost because of mental illness. If only some of those people were put back into the workforce more quickly, instead of having to recruit people. We...
Angela Burns: Will you take an intervention? I just wondered why you were not able to commit to delivering it by January 2019, because I fear that, unless there's a real target on it, it could drift?
Angela Burns: Of course, First Minister, I'm sure you'll agree that it's not just a new pathway we need, but people with the passion and commitment to deliver it in a really proactive way. Just recently, I made it my business to go and meet Louise Walby, who was this year's Royal College of Nursing nurse of the year, because Louise has in Cwm Taf developed an excellent programme for dealing with people...
Angela Burns: Thank you for your statement today. I think you're absolutely right to raise the challenges that we all face, whether we're in Wales or in the UK, in regard to leaving the EU under terms of an agreement that are satisfactory to all of us. However, I do think that there's a degree of mischief making in this statement because this is still a negotiation, as you well know, and I do want to...
Angela Burns: I'd like to thank the Minister for bringing forward this statement today, the content of which is very welcome to us, because you have pinpointed with accuracy that lifestyle, transport, housing and design are vital elements of how we're going to be able to move forward in a more integrated way and to have a healthier Wales. It's very vital because home is going to be increasingly the place...
