Category: Press Releases

The press release issued by the Welsh Conservatives on 12 December 2022.

Over 800 children are waiting over two years for autism diagnoses from the Labour-run Welsh NHS, new research has revealed.

Freedom of Information requests from the Welsh Conservatives have uncovered how, of the 7,258 children waiting to find out if they are on the autism spectrum, two-thirds are waiting over six months, 40% over a year, and 22% over 18 months. 804 (or 11%) are waiting over two years.

The final figures are likely to be far higher as North Wales’ Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board refused to provide figures. In September, over 10,000 patients were waiting over 14 weeks for diagnostic and therapies services there, the second highest figure in Wales.

Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Mental Health Minister James Evans MS said:

“Whilst it is understandable that Covid has impacted waiting times, no one would agree it is acceptable for children and parents to wait several months, even years, for an autism diagnosis.

“That diagnosis could be key to giving a child the support they need in their schools and at home, with teachers and parents feeling more confident in helping them too.

“That’s why we pushed for an Autism Act in 2018, only to be blocked by Labour, and why we have called for various improvements to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Integrated Autism Service.

“Unfortunately, this is what the Labour Government delivers to the Welsh people – they can now add 800 children waiting over two years for an autism diagnosis to the worst A&E waits in Britain, the longest NHS waiting list in the UK, and its own slowest ambulance response times on record.”

The ONS estimates that the UK has an Autism prevalence rate of more than 1 in 100 people. According to the National Autistic Society, at least one in three Autistic adults are experiencing severe mental health difficulties due to a lack of support; 70% of Autistic adults would feel less isolated if they received more support.

The national Integrated Autism Service (IAS) was rolled-out across Wales in 2017, but its effectiveness in providing services to Autistic people has been questioned, with issues experienced in the provision and delivery of services.

Some services struggled to manage demand for their services and long waiting lists for assessment and diagnosis have developed, with these expected to occur in future services. A lack of reporting mechanisms has also made it difficult to judge demand for support and the capacity of the IAS to meet this support and what outcomes are achieved for service users.

The press release issued by the Welsh Conservatives on 9 December 2022.

This article was published in the Western Mail on 9th December 2022

WHILE it can be irritating – especially as a politician in a devolved legislature which is not covered nearly enough in the British media – to see news of US politics with little bearing on our nation, events there surrounding the restrictions on abortion has made me think about women’s rights in this country.

Our society has come a long way in the last century in this regard, from voting rights to equal pay to being elected prime minister, but there will be cases where it feels we are going backwards.

The case of Sarah Everard last year, who was kidnapped by a police officer, Wayne Couzens, abusing his position of authority in order to rape and kill her was a story that sickened us all – not only because we saw someone in a trusted profession behave with such cruelty and malice, but that a grown man that had been capable enough to enter the police service in the 21st century thought he had the right to do that to another person.

It speaks of an abhorrent attitude in our age that women are lesser beings. Was this not meant to be a thing of the past as we have become more enlightened about the unalienable rights of human beings?

More recently, we saw Andrew Tate banned from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube – in addition to being thrown off Twitter a few years ago. The former Big Brother contestant and kickboxer had become a social media personality, but yet was promoting views that denigrate women, treating them as objects to be controlled and owned. That rise in misogyny, fueled by ‘influencers’ like Tate and left unchallenged by platforms like TikTok, I argue, would be more likely to lead to more cases like Wayne Couzens’, not fewer.

A simple Google search would bring up several reports alleging misogynistic language and behaviour. I agree with the views of domestic abuse charities that this is extreme misogyny with the potential to radicalise men and boys to commit harm offline.

This is all the more credible when it is considered that Tate was one of TikTok’s most famous personalities – videos of him on the platform have been watched 11.6 billion times. To me, this man is a toxic influence among the generations that are newest to the workplace and the one that will follow them. It equally shows why this government is right to bring in the Online Harms Bill. We need to tackle social media platforms that don’t want to silence such ‘influencers’ as Tate because those platforms benefit from sharing of his content.

While moves to ban him from social media have finally occurred, his videos are already widespread. And he won’t be the only such person out there. And, I fear many of his followers may now have this outlook on women already woven into their being.

I do not believe there is a partisan way to approach this troubling aspect of our society. While the new curriculum in Wales has been criticised from some quarters over its relationship education programme, I hope it will work in a positive way to address how women are treated and perceived, and I am pleased that the Welsh Government seem to be going in this direction.

It is not just about getting young boys to counter sexism when they see it later in life, but also for young girls to challenge it, not just among men but, within themselves and their female peers.

Indeed, a study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, found in a series of experiments that participants processed images of men and women in very different ways.

When presented with images of men, perceivers tended to rely more on “global” cognitive processing, the mental method in which a person is perceived as a whole. Meanwhile, images of women were more often the subject of “local” cognitive processing, or the objectifying perception of something as an assemblage of its various parts.

This is why we need to reach our young people now – stamp out this attitude before it takes over how their very brains work.

Ultimately, as any parent will know, the home environment will largely be the most significant influence on a child’s life and view of the world. As when it comes to homework, children need to hear from those they love and trust most of the value of putting the hard graft in.

It is the same when it comes to behaviour towards women. If children see misogynistic language or action at home, whether that be exhibited from men or women, then it becomes increasingly permissible. This can not only be replicated in younger generations, but it can metastasise into the crimes our society abhors the most.

Some might ask why a man is writing an article about women’s rights. I will simply say that if a man is incapable of doing so, then we are in more trouble than we think.

The press release issued by the Welsh Conservatives on 8 December 2022.

The press release issued by the Welsh Conservatives on 8 December 2022.

The Welsh Ambulance Service have carried out over two million hours of paid overtime in the last five years, it can be revealed.

Figures obtained by the Welsh Conservatives show WAST staff work an average of 31,700 hours of overtime every month since April 2017, at a total cost of £61,166,262 – over £10m per year.

The news comes after October saw the slowest ambulance response times for red-calls on record with fewer than half reaching their patient in the eight-minute target. Additionally, two-thirds of amber call patients – which include strokes – took over an hour to reach, with only 19% arriving within 30 minutes.

Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister Russell George MS said:

“These figures are really concerning but hardly surprising, especially with ambulance workers – who’s work I am certain everyone is grateful for – regularly recording the highest sickness rates in the NHS.

“Ambulance technicians are regularly stuck waiting outside A&E departments, unable to handover their patient, and go to help others. This is what happens when the NHS is ill-equipped to deal with emergency patients and healthy patients cannot be discharged into a care setting.

“Is it any wonder we have NHS workers striking when they are burning out from exhaustion? Yet we have a culture of overtime that is costing the NHS millions. Now it is nurses, but how long before that spreads into other parts of the NHS?

“Labour need to get a grip on the NHS and stop breaking all the wrong records like they are on ambulance response times, A&E waits, and treatment waiting lists.”

The figures do not include unpaid overtime, and WAST were unable to provide figures on the number of staff who worked paid overtime.

The press release issued by the Welsh Conservatives on 7 December 2022.

After years of dithering and delay, the Labour Government has finally caught up with other parts of the United Kingdom in banning single-use plastics.

Today, the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) Bill finally passed the Senedd with Welsh Conservative support.

Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shnadow Climate Change Minister Janet Finch-Saunders MS said:

“It is high time Labour banned single-use plastics as we have been saying they should for years, as has been done in the rest of Britain.

“Around 10m tonnes of plastic is dumped into the world’s oceans annually, with studies predicting that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish – but less than 10% of single-use plastics have been recycled, showing just how much this legislation is needed.

“I do wish that, instead of being unhelpfully and unnecessarily contrarian, the Labour Government just adopted the same definition of “single-use” as England and Scotland, but we felt that an imperfect Bill should not be allowed to torpedo the wider objective.

“Hopefully now, Labour ministers can get on with its other long-awaited environmental promises like a Clean Air Act and show it is as serious about tackling climate change as the Welsh Conservatives.”

The press release issued by the Welsh Conservatives on 7 December 2022.

The Welsh Conservatives are calling for a nationwide review of children social services as Wales is the only UK nation not undertaking one.

The call comes after months of Mark Drakeford blocking such a review despite this and Wales having the UK’s highest rate of looked-after children.

The Party will make the call in a Senedd debate today and follows an investigation into Bridgend Council’s handling of the murder of Logan Mwangi who is regarded to have been failed by the Council.

Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Social Services Minister Gareth Davies MS said:

“The horrible murder of Logan has brought to the fore a part of our public services that ministers too often neglect to talk about which is why the Welsh Conservatives have again brought forward our call today for the Wales-wide review of children services the Labour Government still blocks.

“The report into Logan’s death showed we were right to be concerned and highlight the dangers of a growing dependency on agency social workers, a multimillion pound industry that can lead to child safety being put at risk.

“Given what came out in the report on the handling of Logan’s case in Bridgend and the fact that Wales has the highest rate of looked-after children in the UK, we should certainly end Wales’ role as the only part of the UK not undergoing a review of children social services.

“If we do not have this review, people will ask why Labour are blocking it. Or is this just like with the Wales-specific Covid inquiry they’ve killed? They don’t want an investigation because they are worried about what it will find.”

In England, after the deaths of Star Hobson and Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, a review was initiated into system-wide child protection practices. The Northern Irish Executive commissioned an independent review into children’s services in February 2022. The Scottish Government undertakes periodic reviews.

Welsh Conservative research found that Bridgend Council spent £1,147,354 on agency social workers in the year Logan was murdered, a ten-fold increase compared with 2020/21.

Overdependence on agency social care workers was identified as a factor in Star Hobson’s death. According to a Welsh Conservative Freedom of Information requests, 376 agency social workers were employed by Welsh councils last year at a cost of nearly £20.m, up from 365 for £18.5m in 2020/21 and 279 for £16.2m the year before.

The press release issued by the Welsh Conservatives on 6 December 2022.

The BBC high street comparison tool, using Ordnance Survey data, reveals a stark contrast between Cardiff, the rest of Wales and Great Britain. With the overall picture showing Cardiff as a city in decline.

A Labour Cardiff Council Cabinet Member has criticised the delay to Cardiff Parkway Station plans, stating that this “does nothing to enhance Cardiff or Wales’ reputation with the business community.”

Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Economy Minister, Paul Davies MS said:

“It is concerning to see Labour-run Cardiff in such a state of decline. The Welsh Conservatives have long been calling on the Labour Government in Cardiff Bay to reform the tax on jobs that is business rates. It is often the number one issue for high street business owners.

“We are also keen to see the acceleration of plans to open a Cardiff Parkway railway station, sadly on hold at present. Labour councillors in Cardiff have even criticised this Welsh Government’s handling of the project.

“Labour have control of the economic levers at both Senedd and council level, yet they pass the buck and under-deliver at every opportunity. They need to get a grip with this deteriorating situation.”

In Cardiff Council last week, Cllr Russell Goodway, the Labour Cabinet Member for Investment & Development and Councillor for Ely (in Mark Drakeford’s Cardiff West constituency), said:

“What I am seriously disappointed with, and this isn’t the first time its happened, is the delay in the Welsh government making a decision as to whether they are going to call in an application, they took far too long in deciding not to call in the arena project, they’ve taken far too long, months and months and months, to decide they want to determine this application.

“I’m, afraid that delay does nothing to enhance Cardiff or Wales’ reputation with the business community outside of this country and I know it is having a detrimental effect for investors from London and elsewhere cause they think it’s just too hard to do business in Wales.”

The press release issued by the Welsh Conservatives on 6 December 2022.

The Labour Government’s promised bus reforms are a false flag for dealing with the issues that face the industry, the Welsh Conservatives have said today.

Deputy Minister Lee Waters made a statement in the Senedd today stressing the benefits of the franchising model he intends to introduce for buses in Wales.

However, Welsh Conservative Shadow Transport Minister Natasha Asghar MS said far more detail was needed to ensure the success of any reform, such as ensuring hospitals are served by bus routes as a priority and that remote and rural routes are served frequently.

She added afterwards that:

“The Deputy Minister is right to emphasise the ambition to simplify and streamline bus services in Wales so it is easier and cheaper for passengers to get around their communities, and would love to see a system that delivers just that.

“However, if it is being sold as a silver bullet for the problems facing the bus industry, the franchising model is just a false flag because it does not in itself solve issues like the financial viability of routes for providers and making those routes work for residents.

“I also find it bizarre that the increase in people owning a car is somehow being used by the Deputy Minister as a reason for why the current system has failed when it is clearly down to cars becoming more affordable over the last 30 years – but would you expect anything different from the man who has made motorists his number one enemy?

“You cannot get by with just warm words about how good bus services is good for the climate and social mobility – we need action that leads to better results which is why we need far more detail than the vague outlines and over-confidence provided by the Deputy Minister.”

The press release issued by the Welsh Conservatives on 6 December 2022.

The First Minister tried to bat away accusations of a staffing crisis today despite being confronted by testimony from doctors and failures to meet safe staffing requirements.

In FMQs, Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies MS highlighted figures uncovered by the Party that revealed every single A&E department in Wales was inadequately staffed.

It follows news from this morning of the British Medical Association Cymru saying the wolf is at the door of the NHS in Wales, where health has been the responsibility of Labour for 25 years.

Commenting afterwards, Leader of the Opposition Andrew RT Davies MS said:

“The First Minister’s responses today were totally tone deaf to the testimony we heard from doctors on the front line and the figures that show understaffing in every single Welsh A&E department, nevermind the ones he wasn’t confronted with like the extra 1,200 nurse vacancies built up over the last year.

“He may claim there are more staff than ever before in NHS Wales, but that is completely meaningless when you’re stuck waiting in A&E for a whole day or lying on a stretcher in a corridor or on a treatment waiting list for two years in pain because there’s no staff to see you.

“When you consider the state of hospitals, is it any wonder nurses are striking when their working conditions are like this or that patients are paying to go private abroad when they have to experience record long delays for treatment?

“Labour need to get a grip on the NHS and focus on the people’s priorities rather than waste time with pet projects like calamitous constitutional commissions and toxic tourism taxes.”

According to Freedom of Information requests made to Wales’ health boards, all its major hospitals are falling well short of the recommended ‘baseline’ for staffing levels in emergency departments.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) sets a ‘baseline’ for the number of WTE (working-time equivalent) consultants which should be employed in the department to guarantee safe cover. At present no hospital is close to meeting this baseline in Wales, placing patients in potential danger.

The most understaffed A&E units were in Aberystwyth’s Bronglais Hospital (13%), the Central Valleys’ Royal Glamorgan Hospital (26%), and Ysbyty Glan Clwyd near Rhyl (32%).

BMA Cymru chairwoman Dr Iona Collins has described the “heartbreak” of seeing patients being treated in corridors and 14-hour ambulance wait times become “the norm”, adding staff morale is at “rock bottom”, with many thinking about leaving the profession.

Mark Drakeford said that more people were employed in the Welsh NHS than ever before. But this has not prevented a significant number of NHS vacancies, including the number of nurse vacancies expanding by 1,200 in just the last year, a major source of anger for soon-to-strike nurses.

In spite of all this, Wales has the longest treatment waiting lists and worst A&E waits in Britain, and recently recorded its slowest ambulance response times on record.

The press release issued by the Welsh Conservatives on 6 December 2022.