2. 2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:43 pm on 16 May 2017.

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Photo of Nick Ramsay Nick Ramsay Conservative 2:43, 16 May 2017

Three brief areas, if I may, leader of the house. Firstly, can I support Mark Isherwood’s earlier call for a statement on support given by the Welsh Government for rare diseases in Wales? I think you mentioned vasculitis, an area of concern close to my heart. Many of these sufferers of rarer diseases do often feel left out. It’s natural for large diseases—cancer, heart disease—to get a lion’s share of funding, but over time I think it is important that we do send a signal to sufferers of rare diseases that they are being thought about and policy is being formed around them, too. So, if I can ask for that.

Secondly, I think it’s six months now since the health Cabinet Secretary made a statement—it was either written or oral—to this Chamber on giving the go-ahead for the specialist and critical care centre at Llanfrechfa Grange Hospital in Cwmbran. I think 2022 was the date given for completion for that project. Could we have an update on whether or not that is on course and what the latest is on that, because there are concerns by health officials within health establishments? So, I would be grateful for that.

Finally, I drove along the Heads of the Valleys road near Gilwern on the weekend, and it’s good to see that coming along. That’s a fantastic piece of road, and there are many economic potential benefits around there. I can see the Member for Blaenau Gwent nodding vigorously at that. However, just down the road from the A465, Heads of the Valleys, you’ve got the A40 that links Abergavenny to Raglan and to Monmouth in my constituency, which is an ageing concrete road surface causing a lot of hassle for commuters and also a lot of hassle for people living in adjacent areas. So, if we’re going to have this fantastic piece of road kit up at the Heads of the Valleys, it doesn’t make any sense to have a poorer piece of road infrastructure feeding into it. So, I wonder if we could have a statement from the Cabinet Secretary for transport on how he intends to build on the development of the Heads of the Valleys and make sure that the surrounding road network is also built up to standard.