Thank you for your statement, Minister. 

If this Government is so concerned about the impact of Brexit on the Welsh NHS, is the Minister comfortable with the admission that the First Minister made to me in committee recently that the Welsh Government hasn't spoken to a single pharmaceutical company about the implications for supply of Brexit but, instead, has left it up to the UK Government? Is he comfortable with the situation, because, like me, he knows there's no real reason to be concerned about the supply of prescription drugs as a result of a 'no deal' departure?

There have been some supply problems in recent years, but they're attributed to increased demands from developing countries, an increase in the cost of raw materials and, even possibly, some deliberate market manipulation, and nothing to do with our impending Brexit. One politician recently confirmed that shortages are nothing to do with Brexit when she said, 

'Shortages have been a problem for some years. It's a fluctuating problem.' 

Now, that wasn't a Tory Brexiteer saying it—it was Sandra Gidley, a former MP for the remain-supporting Lib Dems, who is also a pharmacist. Of course, Welsh Government would have known this had they spoken to pharmaceutical companies, rather than just left it up to London. So, when are you going to have these conversations, Minister? Are you ever going to have them, and are you actually going to take control of the matter? 

Some people argue that patients are being tempted to stockpile ahead of Brexit and, if that's the case, then scaremongering remainers have no-one to blame but themselves for causing the ill to feel paranoid about their future supply, and Welsh Government should hang their heads in shame. Exploiting the vulnerable to further the remainer Welsh Government's devotion to the EU, and to thwarting the will of the Welsh people is nothing short of abuse.

And any argument that suggests that delays in importation due to no longer being in a customs union is utter twaddle. The World Trade Organization's pharmaceutical tariff elimination agreement guarantees that medical products will continue to be imported tariff-free, and that same agreement forbids the raising of non-tariff barriers. Not only would the EU be prevented from raising barriers to the import or export of medical products, so would the UK.

Furthermore, as a sovereign nation setting its own rules and practices at the border, in theory, we could decide to wave through every single incoming lorry if we felt so inclined, particularly shipments that are evidently pharmaceutical. Even in the customs union, some lorries are stopped and searched for illegal imports and illegal immigrants, but most are waved through regardless of their starting points.

Moving on to recruitment and staffing, this Government can't really tell us what effect leaving the EU will have on our staff because they haven't done anything to find out the international make-up of the staff of the NHS. They don't know how many of the staff that are of EU origin working in the NHS are clinically trained. That they don't know this is evident from the fact that they're only now starting to count them. They're now starting to count the number of EU people in social care, only weeks before we're due to leave. Why haven't you done this before? The referendum was over two years ago. 

How can the Government say that they're worried about the impact of patient care in the event of Brexit, when they don't know how many staff are clinicians from the EU? And if the Minister knew this figure, he'd have said it today. On the day that respected political scientist Sir John Curtice says that remain voters don't have a better understanding of the EU than leavers, I would suggest that, for the sake of the public's respect for politicians, you stop the scaremongering. The public can see through it, just like they did on referendum day in 2016. Out of all the nations in the union, Wales spends the least on its health service and has the worst outcomes for patients. What are you going to do about that, Minister, or are you going to continue blaming it on Brexit? Welsh Government continues to bleat that Brexit in any form will be horrendously expensive and holds out its begging bowl to Westminster, asking for unspecified funds for unspecified costs.

It was illuminating that last week the First Minister had to admit that Welsh Government has not undertaken a reliable assessment of the actual cost of preparing for Brexit in any form. So, any assertions by that same Government as to the cost and implications of Brexit have no credibility in the context of Welsh Government's utter failure to do its homework and its decision instead to rely on guesstimates. When will you finally do a proper analysis, Minister?

And although the Welsh Government want us to sing, 'Don't blame it on the Minister, don't blame it on the First Minister, don't blame it on the Government. Blame it on Brexit', that doesn't wash—[Interruption.] That doesn't wash, since it's Labour who have ruined the Welsh NHS, all by themselves, and were doing so years before the referendum.

So, before you produce any more scaremongering tactics, just because you want an excuse to ignore the majority decision of Welsh voters to leave the EU, I suggest you actually do some research, talk to the people who are actually going to be doing the work of maintaining supplies, and stop trying to scare the sick and vulnerable. The people of Wales voted to leave the EU, the single market, and the customs union. You've had your instructions, when are you going to do as you're told?