Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 13 December 2022.
They haven't taken £400 million out of the NHS, they've invested it in the NHS workforce and have recognised that, without actually sustaining the morale of that workforce, then there wouldn't be an NHS, because, actually, who is there to deliver it? Now, Rishi Sunak has said that an inflationary pay increase for all public sector workers would cost £28 billion; the Institute for Fiscal Studies points out that that's an inflated figure, because it doesn't include the pay deals already offered. Now, last week Eluned Morgan said that an inflationary pay increase would cost £900 million in Wales. But again, that's across the entire public sector, it doesn't acknowledge the over-£200 million that you've already committed as part of your current offer to NHS staff. So what, First Minister, would it take to top up what you've already offered to the 7.5 per cent pay award that has averted the strikes in Scotland? It's around £120 million. Are you seriously saying that you don't have any money left in the Welsh reserve; there is no unallocated funding left, that you could not use some of the £200 million you spend annually on private sector services in the NHS, that you couldn't better spend that on public sector staff?