Carwyn Jones: The financial inclusion strategy that we have will be looking at how we can develop further ways of helping people to deal with gambling, and helping people to make informed choices about gambling. Not long ago, betting shops were behind closed doors and opaque windows. Now, it’s absolutely everywhere. For those of us with a continuing interest in the European championship, we see, every...
Carwyn Jones: We continue to seek powers to regulate fixed-odds betting machines and we support moves to increase the powers of local authorities in relation to the licensing of new betting shops. People suffering with gambling addiction can access advice and support through their GPs or organisations such as Gamblers Anonymous.
Carwyn Jones: Well, it’s hugely important that people see gambling as an addiction, which it is—in the same way as people see alcohol as an addiction, the abuse of certain drugs as an addiction, it’s hugely important with gambling as well. We are looking at ways in which we can ensure, via our education system, that people understand the dangers of gambling. It would certainly be helpful, of course,...
Carwyn Jones: It’s true, because we know that there are many, many companies in Wales that are here solely because of the access they get to the single market. If they lose access to the—free access; they’ll still be able to sell in the market. I mean, no-one is suggesting there’ll be no trade at all, but it’s the terms of trade that are important. For example, if you are a company that has bases...
Carwyn Jones: Absolutely. If the money is not made up by the UK Government, then it follows logically that we won’t be able to fund many of the projects that are currently planned to be funded by European money, because we don’t have that money. So, without that money, there are many projects that, beyond the period when the UK has left the European Union, will not be able to be funded unless that...
Carwyn Jones: As I said earlier, a specialist team is going to be located in the Brussels office in order to ensure that they’re able to negotiate with the European institutions, in order to ensure that the voice of Wales is listened to. We will be part of the British system, but it’s extremely important that we have our own route into the European institutions, in order to ensure that Wales doesn’t...
Carwyn Jones: A number. Of course, the decision has been made, and the decision has to be respected. Our priority now as a Government is to ensure the future of the people of Wales, and to ensure that that future is a bright one.
Carwyn Jones: Well, surgeons would have a very different view on that. They would say that it should be more equal. But I understand the point. It’s extremely important that we also realise that the nature of the workforce is changing. There are fewer and fewer people who want to buy into a practice. They want more freedom to move across Wales. They don’t want to commit funding into a practice. Some...
Carwyn Jones: Well, we have 2,887 GPs, which is 8 per cent up since 2005, and that shows that we’ve been investing in GPs. It’s not just about GPs; it’s the whole primary care workforce that’s important. Yes, we’re training GPs, but we’ll never train enough GPs purely to work in Wales; it’s been many, many, many decades since we recruited GPs entirely from within Wales. We have recruited from...
Carwyn Jones: GP Recruitment is a priority for us. We are talking to GP representatives across Wales and are developing new models of care that will be attractive for GPs to work in.
Carwyn Jones: Absolutely, it’s crucial. The point about the metro is that, yes, it’ll make it easier for people to travel to cities like Cardiff to work, but also easier for investment to travel up valleys, as well. One of the issues, clearly, that we sometimes face is that investors say to us, ’Well, it’s a bit far away—this community’. I don’t want that to be the case in the future;...
Carwyn Jones: I heard people on the doorstep, I heard Members in this Chamber say, whenever we talked about European projects—they inevitably said, ‘It’s our money.’ People said it on the doorstep to me. It is our money. It’s the money of the people of Wales. It’s not money to be decided to be given to Wales on a whim by the Treasury, as the leader of the Welsh Conservatives has said today. He...
Carwyn Jones: I can say that, in the Cardiff capital region, collaboration is driving forward our priorities in transport, and that means driving forward improvements for Bridgend and Ogmore as well. I know that the Member will have a particular interest in ensuring that the three valleys that he represents are regularly connected to the rail and bus network further south.
Carwyn Jones: It is true that the big change in cancer treatment over the next decade will be specific treatment for those with particular DNA. We are hugely fortunate in the sense that we have the Wales cancer genetic centre—Nobel prize-winning knowledge. I’ve certainly been there and they are developing more tests as they come along. At the moment, of course, there are particular tests that are used....
Carwyn Jones: Indeed. I mean, the public health Bill is designed to tackle the underlying causes of ill health. We know that smoking still persists as one of the major causes of death and ill health in Wales, and that’s why we want to proceed as quickly as possible with a public health Bill, and I’ll give more details about that in the legislative statement later this afternoon.
Carwyn Jones: The Member talks of malignant melanoma, a disease that I unfortunately know well, and it took my mother’s life. It is indeed a hugely invasive cancer; if it spreads, there is no way—or, hitherto, there’s been no way—of stopping it. With the new treatments fund, as soon as a drug is approved then the money will be available to roll out that drug across the whole of Wales.
Carwyn Jones: For example, we will continue to progress the £200 million programme business case for transforming cancer services in the south-east of Wales, we’ll develop our plans for a new treatment fund and publish an updated all-Wales cancer delivery plan.
Carwyn Jones: The leader of UKIP is an optimist. He says there are advantages here: it is not immediately obvious, I have to say, what the advantages are. We are in a period of uncertainty, and uncertainty is bad. Fifty per cent of what we export from Wales goes into the European Union, and so the nature of the deal that we have with that market will be absolutely crucial to our future well-being. And...
Carwyn Jones: Well, no doubt there will be involvement, of course, with all parties as those discussions continue, but it’s a sign of the strange realignment of politics that I’m listening to the leader of UKIP being more devolutionary than the leader of the Conservatives in Wales. That is the irony of the situation. He’s absolutely right: British agriculture doesn’t exist—it won’t exist. There...
Carwyn Jones: Well, my response—. I mean, he’s right; there we are, we saw the result. My response is the same as his party’s response in 2011 to our referendum in Wales, when that was lost by your party. But we have to accept it. There it is. We move on now with a new political landscape. I have already written to the Prime Minister. I expect to get a response. The people of Wales have voted for a...
