Angela Burns: Diolch, Llywydd. Cabinet Secretary, what specific action is the Welsh Government taking to reduce the prevalence of suicide in Wales?
Angela Burns: It cannot be right that one in three people who die by suicide have been in contact with mental health services in the year before their death. It goes beyond a doubt that we're failing to support some of our most vulnerable members of society and to provide effective support. Patients in Wales are consistently exposed to lengthy waits for assessment. Imagine the experience of approaching...
Angela Burns: What I'd also like to try to drill down to is this issue of funding, because that's exactly what I wanted to determine from you today. You've just mentioned, and I believe that I quote you correctly, that you're going to put an additional £35 million into the mental health budget. To be frank, the budget is so opaque that it's very difficult to discern all of the lines—it's difficult to...
Angela Burns: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm pleased to open the Welsh Conservative debate tabled in the name of Darren Millar. We want to express our concern at the capacity of the Welsh NHS to meet demand for unplanned care throughout the year, and not just in the winter months, which is often much discussed here, because the truth of the situation is that pressures may look marginally different in winter,...
Angela Burns: Now, you may recall that 'A Healthier Wales', the Government's much vaunted vision and action plan, flowing from a parliamentary review, firmly puts social models of community-based health and care at the centre of health service delivery. The underpinning cornerstone of this direction of travel is to anticipate health needs and implement sustainable prevention and early intervention...
Angela Burns: Will you take an intervention?
Angela Burns: But surely you recognise that having somewhere like Aneurin Bevan health board having no out-of-hours cover for parts of the day on 27 different days simply isn't acceptable if we're trying to take this pressure away.
Angela Burns: Will the Cabinet Secretary outline what support is in place to aid school governors in their roles?
Angela Burns: Of course, a vital component, which you touched on very slightly in your answer to this, leader of the house, is the role of the third sector. It is extremely important in terms of ensuring that a lot of our services get delivered on the ground. However, the third sector are finding it more and more difficult to engage with health and social care—harder to engage with councils, harder to...
Angela Burns: I'd like to thank the Cabinet Secretary for his statement on the transformation fund. It is very eagerly anticipated, because I have heard this transformation fund being claimed by so many people as a panacea for much within the NHS, so I'm very pleased, actually, to read about the general points that you make about the criteria. Perhaps you could actually just give us a little bit more...
Angela Burns: 3. What assessment has the Counsel General made of the legal basis of the memorandum of understanding between Welsh Ministers and the Secretary of State for Transport relating to the creation of a Welsh traffic commissioner? OAQ52807
Angela Burns: Thank you for that. I now understand that this now comes under our purview, as the Traffic Commissioner for Wales is for Wales. In August of this year, he, or his office, put a notice into the local papers asking for comments from people as to a goods vehicle licensing request that had been made by a superfarm in west Carmarthenshire. And, on behalf of the people of Llanybri, Llanllwch,...
Angela Burns: First Minister, this is a very serious issue. When the Public Health (Wales) Bill was going through its passages in the committees, we had some very compelling evidence from many companies and organisations about how we could tackle air pollution and how we could improve the quality of air. Your Government chose not to take those recommendations forward, despite some of the committee...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Presiding Officer. First of all, Cabinet Secretary, I'd like to thank you for the technical briefing you offered this morning from your officials. It was very helpful. It's a big report, there's an awful lot in it and it makes for interesting reading, much of it welcome, some of it concerning. Four areas particularly leapt out at me in terms of sheer statistics that caused me...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I've agreed to give a minute of my time to Mohammad Asghar, Janet Finch-Saunders and Russell George. The countryside of Wales is not only the sweeping canvass that underpins our nation and defines our borders and identity, but it forms the backdrop to a way of life that is often not understood or as valued as it should be. Yet rural Wales is home to...
Angela Burns: Another compromise too far is healthcare. It is no coincidence that the two health boards covering the majority of rural Wales are in major difficulties. These health boards have presided over major controversial reorganisations, which aim to centralise services and save money. However, what is often ignored is the views of the local population. It may be more economically efficient to centre...
Angela Burns: Thankfully, the tourism tax did not take hold; dropped from consideration by Welsh Labour when they understood the strength of feeling against it from rural communities. Because we have some wonderful accommodation on offer in rural Wales, from country hotels overlooking lakes and mountains, to bed and breakfasts next to the coastal path, all the way through to holiday parks and on-farm...
Angela Burns: Will you take an intervention? May I just ask you, and I note you have the Minister for the Welsh language sitting next door to you, does your economic plan, which recognises all the regions, also weight and factor that Welsh lives very strongly in many rural areas? Unless you support those rural areas—the tourism, the health, the education, all the rest of it—then, actually, the Welsh...
Angela Burns: But, of course, one of the keys to growing our tax base is ensuring that, one, we get more people into work, and, two, that they are able to earn a better standard of living, a better wage, so that they can then put that back into the economy. That, in turn, generates the cash for us to spend on health, education and all the other myriad public service requirements that we have. And, so, the...
Angela Burns: First Minister, there's always more that can be done and I recognise totally the commitment of the Welsh Government to this issue, and indeed the commitment of most of the parties in this Chamber to the fact that too many women, too many young girls, too many teenagers are being beaten up. I have two particular bugbears and I would like to know what you think you as a Government, and we as...
