I certainly welcome this development. I’m pleased that through both deliberations following the election leading to the compact and in more recent discussions on the budget we have been able, working with the Government, to make sure that we have this package that will, hopefully, make a difference to patients in Wales. I’ll make a note that it is important to await the result of the IPFR review, because that is going to be key also for people with rare diseases and rare forms of disease. I’m pleased that the Conservatives now see that they were not pursuing patients’ interests in Wales in pursuing the cancer drugs fund. [Interruption.] No, if you were here a minute or so ago, you would have heard—[Interruption.] You would have heard your spokesman saying that this is rightly opening the door to funding for patients suffering from all diseases, because it’s not just cancer sufferers that Government needs to be helping, and I am pleased that this is a new treatment fund and not just a cancer drugs fund, as important as it is to get drugs to cancer patients.

I have a number of questions. The change to two months following approval is to be welcomed, but we know that three months was a struggle for LHBs at times, despite it being a requirement—we must remember that—and often patients had to have interventions from Members here to get access to medicines approved for general use. So, mechanisms to ensure delivery are key here. Would the Minister outline those mechanisms and explain what happens if he hears of an LHB that doesn’t add a new medicine to the formulary?

Secondly, both NICE and AWMSG are respected organisations, they do valuable work, but the process of evaluating new medicines can sometimes be time consuming and can also neglect new uses of older medicines. I’m thinking, for example, of bisphosphonates and breast cancer. Does the Minister think that there is a case for AWMSG to meet more frequently now to look at these issues, particularly given that finance shouldn’t be as much of an issue in these cases?

The statement doesn’t mention how long funding of each medicine will last, but you have previously said it’s 12 months funding before LHBs have to fund the drugs themselves. Could you confirm that that continues and what processes you’re putting in place to ensure that that does happen?

And finally, sometimes the best treatment may not be pharmaceutical and may not be a medicine; it may be a new piece of equipment or technique for surgery. It may be a new non-clinical intervention. Perhaps increasingly, in future, we’ll see wearable technology playing a role in monitoring patients. But we know that, often, Wales has been, in the past, slow to adapt to these new technologies as well. So, how are you ensuring that the Welsh NHS is able to monitor these new technologies to ensure we are able, here, to use the latest machinery and equipment where doing so is in the best interest of the patient?