4. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the budget allocation for the health and social services portfolio? OAQ52894

The draft budget for 2019-20, published last month, allocates more than £500 million extra for health and social services compared to the current financial year. Of the £365 million consequential from the UK budget announced in July, more than half has already been spent by the UK Government in pay and pension changes.

Cabinet Secretary, you're already aware of my outright opposition to Hywel Dda Local Health Board's plans to downgrade Withybush hospital to a community hospital and centralise services to another site. I remain deeply concerned that no commitment has been given to the construction of any new hospital in west Wales. Given the desperate need for the health board to plan its service delivery for the future and recruit vital medical professionals, can you as Cabinet Secretary for Finance at the very least confirm that funding will be made available for any new hospital site so that people living in west Wales can be sure that the health board's plans are affordable in the first place? What discussions have you had with your colleague the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services on this particular issue?

I can assure the Member that I have discussed the whole issue with the Cabinet Secretary for health. It will be for the health board to put forward the business cases required to deliver its preferred strategy. Of course, given the controversial nature of some of the proposals, it is possible that Welsh Ministers may be called upon to take final decisions on the plans. I have to be careful in what I say, as I know very well from my days as health Minister in that context. What I can say to the Member is this: if it is possible to reach an agreement on a way forward on health services in that part of Wales, then the Welsh Government will look positively at our ability to support the health board in developing those business cases to put that agreed plan into practice. 

Cabinet Secretary, in discussions with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services in committee last week, examining the budget proposals, it was highlighted that the data that we currently have on the prevalence of people with mental health problems in Wales is not necessarily robust, and the Cabinet Secretary was able to outline plans that are in place to improve that collection of data. If, as he indicated, it turns out that the current estimates of prevalence are, in fact, a lot lower than the real need, would you as Cabinet Secretary for Finance give consideration to any request he may make for additional resources for the health budget to enable that high level of mental health need to be met?

I thank Helen Mary for that important question. I think it's been a shared ambition right across this Chamber during the devolution period that we do more in Wales to recognise mental health needs and then to try and supply services to meet them. One of the reasons why prevalence figures are changing, you might hope, is because the stigma previously associated with mental health is reducing, and people are more willing to come forward and make their needs known. We spend £675 million in the current financial year on mental health services. It's the single largest item in the budget controlled by my colleague Vaughan Gething. We will provide £20 million more for mental health this year and £20 million on top of that again next year, as part of the budget agreement between your party and my party. And as patterns of need change, so I would always be willing to work with the Cabinet Secretary responsible to make sure that we find the money necessary to align with the pattern of need, in physical and mental health, in the Welsh community.