Angela Burns: I'd like to just take a tiny liberty with this question, if I may, First Minister, and start off by extending my heartfelt thanks, and I'm sure the thanks of all of us, to our NHS and social care staff, who know that they're about to face the battle of their lives on our behalf, and they are doing so. And I am very grateful for all that they have done and will do. And, again, a slight...
Angela Burns: Diolch, Llywydd. I'd like to thank everyone who took part in today's debate, and I'd particularly like to thank David for drawing us all together, cross party, to make representations. I think we have to be crystal clear about that word 'cancer', it is something that still today strikes fear and panic in most people's hearts. We still see it as 'the big C', the thing that can come out and get...
Angela Burns: I do agree with you that you've got to have the right person in the right place doing the right job, and I also agree with you that the new chair of Betsi Cadwaladr has made some extraordinary changes and does appear to have the energy, the drive, the initiative and the experience to be able to lead that organisation forward. But the reality of the situation is that the ex-chief executive was...
Angela Burns: Will the Minister outline what the Welsh Government is doing to support people living with eating disorders?
Angela Burns: We supported this amendment when it was originally tabled by Helen Mary Jones at Stage 2, and we continue to support it.
Angela Burns: Formally, Llywydd.
Angela Burns: Formally, Llywydd.
Angela Burns: Thank you very much, Llywydd. Actually, Minister, you're quite right in some ways: you would expect that you wouldn't have to put on the Bill a protection about training. But unfortunately, we've done it because during the course of our negotiations, during Stages 1 and 2, and all our other meetings, which you've honestly and openly held with opposition spokespeople, you've watered down the...
Angela Burns: Diolch. Amendment 44, the duty to provide information, advice and training to volunteers, is my only amendment in this group. It's because, during our evidence session with community health councils, it was quite clear that community health councils currently undertake training with their members, as do their equivalents in England, namely Healthwatch, and we want this to continue. You might...
Angela Burns: I'd like to move amendment 46, tabled in my name, and I will be opposing the Government amendment 4 in order to get to my amendment, because it's an amendment that's intended to ensure there's a duty to co-operate between NHS bodies, local authorities and the citizen voice body under recommendation 17 of the committee Stage 1 report. This has been brought forward from Stage 2, as we agree...
Angela Burns: We also need to remember that, for example, Social Care Wales recommended the Welsh Government revisit their decision, explaining that the power of access fills the gaps of provider capture and situational capture, i.e., it's tilted in favour of the provider. And this is what is encountered during inspection powers. The older people's commissioner said that this function could be flexible,...
Angela Burns: As the Minister said, my amendment 45 relates to the right of entry or access to premises via the citizen voice body, and, again, it's based on the committee's recommendation 12 at Stage 1. It's also in line with the views of the current board of CHCs, who do not wish entry to premises to be consigned to a code of practice. We would reject the Minister's amendment 3 on the basis that a duty...
Angela Burns: Welsh Conservatives will be supporting this amendment.
Angela Burns: You have disappointed me, because we did talk about anticipatory amendments, and because I am worried that it will get kicked into the long grass, or it'll be allowed to drag on and on. I've been an Assembly Member for 10 years and one of the first cases I ever had to deal with was of a young man who had been run over by a car and was paralysed from his neck down, and he had healthcare...
Angela Burns: Formally, Llywydd.
Angela Burns: Thank you, Llywydd. I'd like to formally move the amendments 43 and 47, tabled in my name. Amendment 43, Minister, is a probing amendment and it relates to requiring NHS bodies and local authorities to work together where a complaint is raised, which relates to both of them, and amendment 47 is consequential to amendment 43. Now, these amendments are based on evidence submitted by the...
Angela Burns: Formally, Llywydd.
Angela Burns: Yes, but you don't have to put their name, their address, their rank and serial number. So I think you are being a tad disingenuous here. And that's what the guidance can lay out. And this is taking legal advice; all opposition parties work with teams of lawyers—it isn't just the Government that has these guys who know what they're talking about. So that's my first observation on this. My...
Angela Burns: Thank you very much indeed. There is a bit of an issue here, really, isn't there? I didn't just sort of sit down and knock out these amendments in the dark one night; I actually had a lawyer team who worked on it. So when you stand there and say, as you have done a couple of times throughout this, 'This isn't written very well, this isn't in the right terminology, this says this, that or the...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Llywydd. I'd like to formally move amendments 41 and 42, tabled in my name. This issue was first raised, or amendment 42 was first raised, at Stage 2 by Plaid Cymru spokesperson Helen Mary Jones with my full support. It's in line with committee recommendation 13 at Stage 1. During our evidence sessions, it became very apparent that the body should be able to make representations to...
