Mark Drakeford: Diolch, Llywydd. To put it in context for a moment, Wales received 22 per cent of the European Union's UK allocation from the last round of structural funds—22 per cent. We received 10 per cent of the levelling-up fund. Remember, Llywydd—remember—we were not to be a single penny worse off as a result of leaving the European Union. What nonsense that turned out to be. To answer the...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, just to make sure that this is properly on the record, the amount of money available for the whole of Wales from the levelling up fund is less than the money available to the south-east of England. Now, should we surprised at that? Well, I don't suppose we would be, because the current Prime Minister was on record during his campaign to become Prime Minister as having said that...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, the instability of the UK Government and frequent UK ministerial changes have made it difficult to form dependable and productive links in the past year. We continue to press for implementation of the reformed inter-governmental relations machinery and the predictable, respectful system it implies.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I don't think there is any doubt; I think it's just a statement of fact that living standards will fall in this financial year and next financial year, to an extent that we've never seen before. Llywydd, I think Jayne Bryant makes two very important points. It sometimes seems to me to a be a bit hidden in the public reporting and discussion of assistance with energy bills the...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, people across Wales, including in Newport West, are experiencing the largest and sharpest fall in living standards since records began. This financial year, we will spend £1.6 billion on targeted cost-of-living support and universal programmes to tackle poverty and to leave money in people's pockets.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, those are very important points indeed that Huw Irranca-Davies has made this afternoon. The best hope that we have of the UK Government stepping back from the precipice of its own making is that it will listen, not simply to voices here in Wales or in Scotland, by those many voices in academic life, environmental groups, and particularly in the field of business. And Huw...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, the UK Government continues to deploy its legislative programme in ways that disregard the Sewel convention and undermine the devolution settlement by stealth. Of current Bills, the arbitrary and ideologically driven Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill poses really significant risks to the Welsh Government and to this Senedd.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, we've looked at the history of vascular services in north Wales more than once in the Senedd. I don't agree, the health board doesn't agree and the royal colleges don't agree with what the Member has been suggesting over the years. Llywydd, the health Minister has accepted that there continue to be concerns with vascular services in north Wales and the progress in vascular...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Siân Gwenllian for the question, Llywydd. Over the coming weeks, a number of reports will assist the board in the necessary work of improving vascular service for patients in Arfon. That will include a recent re-inspection of the service by Health Inspectorate Wales and the report commissioned through the board’s own vascular quality panel.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I begin by paying tribute to the work that goes on at Brynawel—a project that unites people across this Chamber in the work that's been invested in making it a success. The approach we've taken in Wales is a harm-reduction approach, one that recognises the pressures that exist and that propel people into these difficulties, and thinks of substance misuse as a public health...
Mark Drakeford: I fundamentally disagree with the last point the Member made. He's right to say that drug-related deaths in the last year for which figures are available rose in Wales, as they did in every part of the United Kingdom, but they fell in Swansea. So, that's an important thing to recognise as well. I do accept that there are particular challenges in the Swansea Bay area, and we need a full...
Mark Drakeford: I certainly agree about the importance of local community energy. In the statement that the Minister will make later this afternoon, I anticipate that she will have something to say about new and more ambitious targets in that part of what we do. The Welsh Government has significantly increased our support for Community Energy Wales. It's chaired these days by our former colleague Leanne...
Mark Drakeford: The Welsh Government continues to support people who experience problematic use of both drugs and alcohol. We are investing almost £64 million in our substance misuse agenda in this financial year, and that will increase to almost £67 million in 2023-24.
Mark Drakeford: We have a marine plan. The first Wales marine plan was published in November 2019 and the first three-year review of that plan was laid before the Senedd on 10 November. So, I'm not absolutely sure what the Member is asking for when that plan exists and it's been reported here to Senedd Members. On the specific issue of the budget, the Minister is in front of committee tomorrow and will no...
Mark Drakeford: The Government's policy is to have the Crown Estate devolved here to us in Wales. We have had more than one conversation with the Crown Estate and we've presented the same idea to the UK Government as well. As I know Llyr Gruffydd will know, with the current UK Government, there will be no opportunity, I don't think, to move ahead with that idea. But in the opinion of the Government, that's...
Mark Drakeford: Last week’s awarding of a seabed lease to the Mona project is a milestone moment. Providing that conditions are right, major private sector investment can be mobilised to create a renewable energy future for Wales.
Mark Drakeford: First of all, many people in the health service do work less than a five-day week. It's part of the changing nature of the way in which people who occupy those very pressurised roles choose to make their own future. It's part of the reason why we have more people working in the Welsh health service, in every single aspect of it, than ever before. We're always willing to look at ways in which...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, there were figures published last week of performance in the Welsh NHS. Here is the crisis service that the Member described: all waits in the health service in Wales fell in November. The total number of people waiting fell; the total number of people who were waiting over 26 weeks fell, over 52 weeks fell, over two years fell. The number of people waiting for a therapy...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I will have lost count of the number of times that I have said in this Chamber that the NHS in Wales is under enormous pressure and that it is not able to do all of the things that we would like it to do in the way that we would like it to do them. If the leader of Plaid Cymru thinks that attaching a label to that somehow, by itself, makes all of that any better, then that is...
Mark Drakeford: The capital budgets available to the Welsh Government go down every year; they are 8 per cent lower next year than they are this year. Where does the Member think the money comes from to do the things that he suggests? Not only that, but our capital borrowing limit has remained unchanged since 2016. These are not decisions of the Welsh Government; they are decisions of the Government that he...
