6. Debate on the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee's report into loneliness and isolation

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:20 pm on 14 February 2018.

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Photo of Joyce Watson Joyce Watson Labour 5:20, 14 February 2018

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I thank you for calling me in a long line of speakers, and I aim to be brief. I very much welcome the report and I also welcome the commitment from the Welsh Government Minister and his resolve to tackle the causes. The causes are manifold, and I'm not going to repeat all those ones that people have discussed today. But I do think that we need to remember that loneliness doesn't only reside in the elderly. Although it does reside in the elderly, it resides in any one, anywhere, of any age group, at any time, because it's, as Angela Burns so eloquently stated, very often a position you find yourself in.

But it is also connected, sometimes, to the facilities and services around you, and I have spoken here about bus regulation to try and ease the passage—I do use those words wisely—of transport for people in rural areas. Because if we can use those powers so that we don't end up in a situation where there's a stop-start position on bus travel in Mid and West Wales, with companies going bust, people can keep and maintain the companionship that they gain on public transport. The same is said of other services, like free swimming. I think it's those things that we need to join up now, where they're working for individuals, where people can access their services, their facilities and actually gain some friendship. We need to join them up together, and I hope that that will form part of what you do.