Caroline Jones: Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary, and for providing an advance copy of the 'Autism Spectrum Disorder Strategic Action Plan: Annual report 2017/18'. I'm pleased that the Welsh Government are investing in services and that progress is being made. However, the evaluation of the integrated autism service and the autistic spectrum disorder strategic action plan interim reports, by...
Caroline Jones: Thank you for that answer, First Minister. As I've highlighted before, many times, one in four of us will suffer from mental ill health. A friend or a work colleague could be battling depression for years—we wouldn't know about it, because, unfortunately, there is still a stigma attached to mental health issues. We all have to be more open about mental health: we wouldn't try to hide a...
Caroline Jones: Thank you for that answer. My concern here is that mental health issues account for around a quarter of all health problems, yet we're spending as little as over 11 per cent of the entire NHS Wales budget. We have seen a 100 per cent increase in demand for child and adolescent mental health care services. We know that depression affects 22 per cent of men and 28 per cent of women over the age...
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, the Prime Minister announced over the weekend that there would be a £20 billion a year birthday present for the NHS in England. As a result of Barnett, Wales is expected to receive £1.2 billion. On Sunday, a Welsh Government spokesman said that a decision on the allocation of funding would be made by your Cabinet in the usual way. So, First Minister, have...
Caroline Jones: What action is the Welsh Government taking to improve cancer survival rates in South Wales West?
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I would like to thank the Welsh Conservatives for bringing forward this debate today. I agree wholeheartedly with the motion before us, and my amendment purely seeks to highlight the invaluable contribution made by Wales's army of unpaid carers. We would have to more than double our entire health and social care budget, if not for the thousands of people caring for a...
Caroline Jones: UKIP will be abstaining on all the amendments in this group. In fact, we will be abstaining on all the amendments before us today, as we did in Stage 2. I thought long and hard about whether to table amendments to the Bill. I had considered tabling amendments very similar to those proposed by both Angela and Rhun, but in the end decided against because there is simply no way to improve this...
Caroline Jones: Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. I want to state at the outset that my party supports the direction you are taking with the long-term plan. I might not always agree with some of the decisions you may take or always support the way you've opted to implement those decisions, but I agree that things have to change, and they have to change if we are to see the NHS celebrate its...
Caroline Jones: Thank you for that, First Minister. I'm sure we can all agree that, in the interests of safety of staff and prisoners regarding self-harm, something does need to be done on the capacity of staff as well—for the staff to be increased in order to provide a safe environment and in order to help with rehabilitation and to prevent reoffending. So, regardless of where the responsibilities over...
Caroline Jones: Thank you for clarifying that, First Minister. As you've rightly said, we have no women's prison in Wales and not a single category A prison. In fact, the prisons are severely overcrowded in Wales. Wales has 4,747 prisoners and only, across the five prisons, has an operational capacity of 3,700. So, a large number of Welsh prisoners are incarcerated in prisons hundreds of miles from home....
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, last week, there were some comments in the media with regard to English prisoners in Welsh prisons. Normally, I wouldn't raise this as a matter because the issue of prisons is not devolved to Wales. However, these comments allegedly came from a member of your Government. The Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services is believed to have said...
Caroline Jones: According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, nearly a third of all graduates, and two thirds of those studying law, end up in jobs paying less than £20,000 a year, and while graduates are less likely to be unemployed, many end up working in sectors where their degree is irrelevant. We have to ensure that the costs associated with achieving a degree do not outweigh the...
Caroline Jones: Will the Cabinet Secretary outline the benefits that the new rail franchise will bring to passengers in South Wales West?
Caroline Jones: Thank you for that, First Minister. The new franchise holders, KeolisAmey, have indicated that half of all new trains will be assembled in Wales, and I ask: will they be built with Welsh steel? With the Trump administration's tariffs on steel, the Port Talbot steelworks stand to lose 10 per cent of their business, and with the electrification to Swansea abandoned, and it being all but...
Caroline Jones: Thank you very much. Thank you for highlighting how the whole of Wales will benefit. Staying with the new franchise, I'm glad to see the commitment to retaining onboard toilets on all existing trains, and I hope that they will be fully accessible. There was little in the Cabinet Secretary's written statement about the accessibility of rail services other than on the south-east metro. We...
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, the plans for the new Wales and borders franchise are very promising and a clear demonstration of what can be achieved by a true public-private partnership. The investment that will be pumped into our rail network over the next decade could not be achieved by the public sector alone. The biggest transformation will be in the south-east of Wales, with the metro...
Caroline Jones: I would like to thank the Petitions Committee for their report and the 7,171 people who raised the petition regarding marine licence 12/45/ML. I, like the petitioners and thousands of other people across Wales, am deeply concerned about the plans by the French nuclear energy company to dump irradiated sediment off our coast. The south Wales coast is a very important ecosystem—home to a...
Caroline Jones: Thank you, Minister. As you're no doubt aware, one of my constituents, Paul Davies, an inspirational paralympian, is struggling to train for Tokyo 2020 because of a lack of support from his local authority social services department. Unless Paul gets the help he needs to attend training sessions, he will not qualify and not only will Wales lose one of its medal hopefuls, but we will be...
Caroline Jones: I'm pleased to hear that, Cabinet Secretary. I have in the past raised the issue of European health insurance card fraud, and at the time you said you didn't believe it affected our NHS. However, journalists working for national newspapers revealed how easy it was to obtain a card in someone else's name. Cards were obtained in the name of Theresa May, Jeremy Hunt and Donald Trump. According...
Caroline Jones: Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. I welcome the fact that there is zero tolerance to fraud within the NHS in Wales. Last month, two former employees of a GP surgery in Newport were convicted of fraudulently filing prescriptions and ordered to pay back thousands of pounds to the NHS. Cabinet Secretary, what further steps can be taken to prevent this type of fraud, which costs the...
