Adam Price: As the clean-up begins, of course, questions will need to be addressed about what could have been done differently—the lessons learned that the First Minister referred to. I was wondering if he could address some of those initial concerns. Natural Resources Wales have already admitted, I understand, that debris left behind by logging operations on the mountain above Pentre contributed to...
Adam Price: Diolch. Last week, I saw for myself, first-hand, the deep sense of community spirit that the First Minister also referred to, and I'll be visiting residents in Pentre again tomorrow. This is not a time to walk on by on the other side, when people are facing such hardship and distress, or, in the case of Boris Johnson, simply not to turn up at all, of course. Now, the repair bill—I've seen...
Adam Price: Now, shortly after the Labour leadership contest was over, a copy of the First Minister's manifesto proved more elusive than the Llandeilo bypass, but thankfully there are copies available, I believe, in the Senedd library. But there are some important outstanding questions that I think need answering on the relationship between that document and the programme for government. The central one...
Adam Price: Thank you, Llywydd. It would be churlish not to recognise the successes of the Government, which are set out in the annual report, and, of course, where there is room for agreement for the benefit of the people of Wales, even as opposition parties, it’s important to do that. That’s why we as a party gave our support last summer to some of the measures in the legislative statement. But we...
Adam Price: Yes, I did take the opportunity to read the ministerial code, and it's quite clear in the ministerial code that Ministers cannot campaign against Government policy. This ward closure was a direct result of your own Government policy. That's the point. You're in danger, on the NHS, of turning double standards into an art form, of having your cake as a Government and eating it as an opposition....
Adam Price: Will you sack the chief whip?
Adam Price: Will you sack the chief whip?
Adam Price: Your predecessor had to face a similar predicament, of course, when Leighton Andrews campaigned against a school closure in his constituency. He did then resign. The similarities between the two cases are much more striking than any differences, though the protest there was outside the Senedd, not in the constituency. The Labour source quoted by the BBC today says that this is a clear breach...
Adam Price: In creating the NHS in 1948, Aneurin Bevan won an argument around the Cabinet table, against the likes of Herbert Morrison, that regional boards within the NHS had to be accountable to, and working under the direction of, a health Minister, otherwise it would not be a national health service, hence the famous apocryphal quote about dropped bedpans in Tredegar reverberating around the...
Adam Price: The health Minister's responsibilities are listed on your own Government's website as having 'oversight of NHS delivery and performance'. Therefore, there can be no doubt as to who is responsible for allowing the situation at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital to deteriorate. Staffing levels at all three of Cwm Taf Morgannwg's A&E units are well below UK-wide standards. The UK average is 7,000...
Adam Price: Who is responsible for making the accident and emergency service at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital unsafe?
Adam Price: Between December 2018 and December 2019—the figures released just today—there were 41 incidents resulting in death registered within Betsi. That's 53 per cent of all such deaths reported by Welsh health boards in total. That's obviously disproportionately high when you consider that health board covers just about 20 per cent of the population of Wales. If I've understood the First...
Adam Price: In last night's programme, Andrew Morgan also said that when there were calls for the resignation of Cwm Taf's chief executive, he was asked not to speak out. Do you agree that any attempt to gag an elected representative is totally unacceptable? And will he launch his own investigation to see whether the allegations that Mr Morgan made vis-à-vis the health board are true? Cwm Taf is not...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, one cannot begin to imagine the grief of parents who suffer the loss of a child. As reported by BBC Wales Investigates last night, an inquest found that the healthcare provided to Sarah Handy contributed to her baby's death in 2017. Her case is one of 140 being reviewed to establish whether mothers and babies were harmed while receiving care at Cwm Taf...
Adam Price: First Minister, you make the case very eloquently that, certainly, probation should have been devolved long ago, and it's certainly the case, I think, that had the justice system been devolved then we wouldn't have followed the disastrous changes that the UK Government implemented, and I think you have to ask: could it be that an innocent life would not have been lost? Obviously, the Thomas...
Adam Price: Thank you, First Minister. When the system was privatised, as we know, eight organisations were awarded the contracts worth just under £4 billion. Working Links was the company supervising David Braddon. In 2015, the year of the murder, The Financial Times reported that staff were writing to the company complaining of excessive workloads. Last week, the coroner concluded that the management...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. Despite repeated public safety concerns, the then justice Secretary at Westminster, Chris Grayling, pressed ahead with the part privatisation of the probation service in 2014. A year later, Conner Marshall from Barry was murdered by David Braddon, who was under the supervision of a privately run community rehabilitation company. This has turned out to be one of the most...
Adam Price: If I understand the First Minister correctly, you were arguing that your failure, in a way, is a reflection of your success. For the eighth year on the bounce, it is again true to say that over 85 per cent of the beds are occupied, which is above the safe threshold that you have set. Some 125 patients were healthy enough to leave one hospital last week, but there was no social care available...
Adam Price: I'm sure that it's right to say that there are systemic reasons for the problems that have been highlighted, but would the First Minister accept that there have been so many cases in north Wales that there must be specific reasons, which would suggest that the kinds of general factors that exist elsewhere have caused a large number of tragic cases? Part of the issue, of course, is a lack of...
Adam Price: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. First Minister, I'd like to start by raising with you the case of Peter Connelly, who died in what the Welsh ambulance service trust described as 'difficult and unacceptable...circumstances'. There had been an eight-hour delay in admitting Mr Connelly to Wrexham Maelor Hospital. Following his death, the senior coroner for north Wales issued a regulation 28 report on...
