3. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:01 pm on 15 October 2019.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 3:01, 15 October 2019

I thank Andrew R.T. Davies for raising those issues. On the second, of course, I remind Andrew that he has an opportunity every Wednesday afternoon to bring forward debates of his liking.

But I will return to the wax management issue that he mentioned at the start of his contribution. A wax management task and finish group was set up in 2018, and that agreed a draft national integrated pathway for the safe and effective management of ear wax. The Welsh Government is currently working with key stakeholders to consider the draft pathway and ensure that it does provide for consistent patient outcomes across Wales. That pathway, then, will be considered by the Minister once the evidence has properly been analysed by policy officials, but, of course, if Members have experiences locally that they'd like to share with the Minister ahead of his consideration of that, I know he'd be keen to hear those experiences.

In relation to Tomlinsons Dairies Ltd, of course we are fully committed to the Welsh dairy industry and are very saddened by the news of the closure of Tomlinsons Dairies Ltd. It is the case that we've worked closely with the company and its stakeholders during the past 18 months to seek to resolve the ongoing business issues, and that support revolved around trade negotiations with the business and its stakeholders, and also supported the sale of an on-site packaging company to support the stability of the overall business. We've also worked very closely with the Development Bank of Wales by introducing additional support through the turnaround restructure options, which the Development Bank of Wales offers.

We are working with Wrexham local authority to help all staff who have been affected, and have set up an immediate taskforce to respond to the redundancy situation at the company. We're also fully supportive of all dairy farmers affected by the closure and we're in discussion with the farming unions and other stakeholders to consider the support that is required at this difficult time.