Mark Isherwood: Our report found that lack of PPE and shortages of end-of-life medication, especially in the early days of the pandemic, were common issues reported by health and social care workers providing palliative care in the community. In many cases, palliative and social care workers were reliant on donations or makeshift PPE items such as visors, scrubs and masks from the local community, and...
Mark Isherwood: Diolch, Llywydd. Our motion today notes the cross-party group on hospice and palliative care's inquiry on experiences of palliative and end-of-life care in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic in Wales. The motion is based entirely on the evidence-based report resulting from this, which sought to give people and organisations at the very sharp end of the pandemic a voice and a platform....
Mark Isherwood: This week marks World Autism Acceptance Week, which aims to change attitudes towards autistic people and their families. As part of its sixtieth anniversary year, the National Autistic Society collaborated with autistic people to create a vision of a society that works for them. Through interviews, workshops, social media and non-verbal creative activities, the charity invited autistic...
Mark Isherwood: I strongly contend that these are matters that fall within the brief—
Mark Isherwood: And I'd therefore be grateful if the Counsel General could answer the question I put at the beginning: what advice would he now give to the health Minister in the context of this worrying statement?
Mark Isherwood: Well, I'd suggest it goes a little bit further than that. And this, I have to say, reeks of an unethical Government, with the Minister following her predecessors in seeking to silence the truth tellers and bury accountability. However, moving on, the Windsor framework, agreed by the Prime Minister and European Commission President, replaces the old Northern Ireland protocol, providing a new...
Mark Isherwood: Well, what advice would you now give to the health Minister, in the context of the statement I've received on behalf of all the former independent members of the health board—respected people in north Wales—stating, 'We believe she is setting healthcare in north Wales back a decade'. And including, 'Each CEO has told us that they have found the executive team unmanageable, made worse by...
Mark Isherwood: Diolch, Llywydd. The Welsh Government's 'NHS Wales Induction Guide for Independent Board Members' includes: 'The aim is to have a single set of values which guide how we work, change culture and shape the way we behave. Living these values means being autonomous yet accountable, being both brave and bold and creating a culture that is open and transparent... 'Holders of public office should...
Mark Isherwood: Hear, hear.
Mark Isherwood: In your written statement on the cost-of-living energy crisis yesterday, you welcomed both the decision to bring prepayment energy charges in line with customers who pay by direct debit, announced in the UK Government budget, and Ofgem's extended ban on the forced installation of prepayment meters. You also stated: 'it is regrettable it took a media investigation to highlight the issue'. Will...
Mark Isherwood: Thank you, Llywydd, for the opportunity to contribute to this debate as Chair of the Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee, or PAPAC. The Business Committee agreed that the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee, or LJC committee, and PAPAC should report on legislative consent memorandum, or LCM, No. 1 by 6 October 2022. On 11 July 2022, the Minister laid before the...
Mark Isherwood: Thank you. The findings of the recent Equality and Human Rights Commission's report 'Challenging adult social care decisions in England and Wales' include: local authorities make daily decisions about people's access to social care and people have a right to challenge them, but people are not given crucial information about how to challenge decisions. They fear that if they challenge...
Mark Isherwood: 7. What guidance does the Welsh Government provide to local authorities on social care decision making? OQ59336
Mark Isherwood: Will you take an intervention?
Mark Isherwood: As somebody who was a bus traveller before deregulation, I can assure you that it wasn't the golden age of public transport. But, nonetheless, do you recognise that, in England, for six years under the 2017 transport bus services Act, they've already been able to choose three options, including franchising, which haven't been available in Wales because of the non-colonial model?
Mark Isherwood: According to the latest available estimates from energy regulator, Ofgem, there were around 4.1 million electricity and 3.3 million gas customers on a prepayment meter, or PPM, in Great Britain in 2020, with proportionally more households in Wales using PPMs than in England. Wales has the highest proportion of gas PPMs compared to other GB nations, and they're often used by some of the most...
Mark Isherwood: I've been proud to host and speak at both the 2022 and 2023 Equal Power Equal Voice Senedd events, celebrating the Equal Power Equal Voice project, a mentoring programme aiming to increase diversity of representation in public and political life in Wales. Equal Power Equal Voice, or EPEV, is a partnership between Women's Equality Network Wales, Stonewall Cymru, Disability Wales, and Ethnic...
Mark Isherwood: Diolch yn fawr. Questioning the Counsel General here in September 2021, I asked him for his initial response to proposals in the Law Commission's consultation paper on devolved tribunals in Wales to, in particular, reform the Welsh Tribunals unit, the part of the Welsh Government that currently administers most devolved tribunals, into a non-ministerial department. I questioned the Counsel...
Mark Isherwood: How does the Welsh Government monitor the performance of NHS 111 in North Wales?
Mark Isherwood: Thank you. There is widespread support for plans for a national forest for Wales, a vast network of woods and forests across the nation open for everyone to explore and enjoy. However, woodland continues to be seen as a public good even when it provides an ideal habitat for apex predators whose predation of nests and chicks is a primary cause of, for example, curlew breeding failure. What...
