Mark Drakeford: I thank Peter Fox for that question. I've been able to read his letter to the health Minister and I've seen her reply. I hope that it will provide some information that is useful for his constituent in what are clearly very distressing individual circumstances. The system works hard every month to deal with the increased volume of cases that come through the door. And it's a good thing that...
Mark Drakeford: Innovation, additional investment and recruitment of specialist staff are amongst the actions being taken alongside clinical leaders to reduce cancer waiting times.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, we've rehearsed many times here the calls that come from different parts of Wales to reform the funding formula, and we have always said, as a Government, that when local authorities come forward with a proposal for reform, of course we will be prepared to discuss it with them. What we cannot possibly do, as the Member will understand, is negotiate a separate formula for each of the...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, Hefin David made a series of important points there, all of which I think the Welsh Government would agree with and all of which are areas in which we continue to make our efforts. I mentioned the £43 million we're investing in securing the real living wage for our social care workforce, the additional investment that we have made—£10 million in fact, on top of the £45...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I thank Hefin David for the question. We are working closely with our social care partners to improve the employment terms and conditions of the workforce. Forty-three million pounds has been provided to the sector to help it increase wages to the real living wage. In addition to that, £45 million has been distributed as a workforce grant to local authorities this year.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, first of all, can I thank Carolyn Thomas for all the work that she has done, commissioned by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change, to champion better management of our road verges and grasslands across north Wales? Carolyn Thomas is absolutely right, Llywydd. This is what deregulation means. In practice, what it means is stripping away the protections that you and I have so...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I genuinely didn't imagine this afternoon that we would hear that the Welsh Conservative party is against flowers. [Laughter.] They're against almost everything else, but I hadn't expected to see wildflower meadows added to their list of things that they don't support in modern Wales. Of course, I do not support what he said this afternoon. In fact, I absolutely congratulate...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, the Denbighshire wildflower project recorded 268 wildflower species on their sites in 2021. One-hundred-and-thirty-six of those species had not been found there before, and the site network of the project is growing every year, supported by Welsh Government's Local Places for Nature initiative.
Mark Drakeford: I thank Jack Sargeant for that and congratulate him, of course, on the way that he himself came through that apprenticeship system and did so so successfully. What you can quite certainly say to the business forum is that, in Wales, they have a Government that fully understands the responsibility that we have to invest in the skills that will allow businesses in that part of Wales to continue...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I've enjoyed Laura Anne Jones's latest contribution to her leadership campaign, but I have to say this to her: that she will need to slow down on the numbers to allow people to follow the points that she is making. I look forward to reading the transcript so I'm better able to follow the argument that she was making. The apprenticeship programme—degree apprenticeship...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, since the degree apprenticeship programme began in Wales in 2018, we have achieved more than a fivefold increase in enrolments. In the current academic year, 780 apprenticeships are working to achieve degree-level qualifications in digital, energy and advanced manufacturing.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, the issue of whether Wales should be independent is a matter for people in Wales, and I've always said that if a party were to put that as a prospect in a manifesto and they were to win a majority of seats here in the Senedd, then, of course, if people choose that course of action, then that is the democratic will of people in Wales. Their voice is the important one—not mine,...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I agree that there is an unanswerable case for an election, and I don't think that the Prime Minister is in quite the unassailable position that the leader of Plaid Cymru has suggested. The deep divisions inside the Conservative Party may be papered over for a few weeks yet. We may see Conservative Members of Parliament playing football against one another on the green outside...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I hope of course that the new Prime Minister will take a different approach to relations with the devolved Governments across the United Kingdom. I see a series of Welsh Conservative MPs today calling on the new Prime Minister to take that initiative, and it is the initiative for the Prime Minister to take. So, I hope very much that there will be early contact from the latest...
Mark Drakeford: On those three points, Llywydd, first of all, as soon as there is a Labour Government, we will be able to implement the Labour promises. I've explained to you—[Interruption.] I've explained to you why, under your Government, with budgets falling year by year, and now another era of austerity facing us all, the promises that your health Secretary made in England will not be met. With a...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, in the figures to which the Member referred last week, it showed that those long waits continue to fall. They've now fallen for five months in a row. They fell again in July, and provided that the system is able to continue in that way, then of course those long waits will be eliminated. What the figures also showed is the extent to which the health service in Wales, despite the...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, it's important to get the facts right, and I'm happy to correct the fact that the Welsh Conservative Party did win one constituency seat across the whole length of the M4 in south Wales. As far as GP appointments are concerned, let us be clear that there is no guarantee whatsoever that that promise will be delivered. I've heard it made by Conservative health Ministers repeatedly over...
Mark Drakeford: Thank you, Llywydd. I'm just explaining the importance of the point that Alun Davies made. Had the Liz Truss Government had their way, those tax cuts would have provided three times as much to London and the south-east than they would have provided to Wales or to northern England. They, of course, were very pleased to support all of that only two weeks ago, just as today, they're no doubt...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, of course I agree with Alun Davies that what this country needs is a general election—an opportunity for all parties to make their case to people and for the people to decide how they believe the crisis that we face should best be tackled. That general election is a democratic necessity, but it's also an economic necessity because you need a Government with a mandate and with...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Delyth Jewell for that question, Llywydd, because she is right: on any reasonable reading of the current prospectus, job losses are coming to Wales and to the United Kingdom. I think I said on the floor of the Senedd in the last couple of weeks that, if we were to see cuts in public expenditure of the eye-watering variety promised by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, then that will...
