Category: Speeches

John Swinney – 2022 Comments on Scottish Budget Date Being 15 December

The comments made by John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister in Scotland, on 6 October 2022.

There is no doubt that the challenges and obstacles of recent times have heavily impacted the way we live. Our continued recovery from the pandemic, the current cost of living crisis, the ongoing turmoil and uncertainty regarding the UK Government’s plans for its Autumn budget and Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine all have implications on the people of Scotland and our economy.

We are not privy to discussions surrounding the UK Government’s ever changing Autumn budget plans, despite the clear and obvious impact this has on our ability to plan our 2023-24 Budget. The Scottish Budget will be informed by voices across Scotland to ensure we continue to deliver to build a fairer, greener and more prosperous country.

I look forward to working with stakeholders and the Committee to ensure a Budget is delivered which puts the priorities of the Scottish people at the forefront and continues to strengthen our economy.

11/10/2022
Eluned Morgan – 2022 Statement on Emergency Care Services for Winter in Wales
The statement made by Eluned Morgan, the Minister for Health and Social Services, on 11 October 2022.

I am pleased to update Members on our planning approach to support resilient urgent and emergency care services this winter.

It is likely the winter period will present additional challenges to an already stretched urgent and emergency care system if there are increases in prevalence of both COVID-19 and influenza, and within the context of the cost of living and energy crises. Members will know there are plans in progress focusing on COVID-19 and influenza vaccination, and additional support for vulnerable people most likely to feel the impact of rising costs this winter.

Planning for seasonal peaks in pressure is a year-round exercise and development of interventions that will enable additional resilience commenced many months ago. Additionally, a winter planning framework has been issued to NHS Wales organisations and Regional Partnership Boards to support them to plan and deliver resilient urgent and emergency care services this winter.

Since Spring 2022, Health Boards have been working with partners to develop local urgent and emergency care plans focused on a small number of priorities set by the Welsh Government that will support people to access the right care, in the right place, first time. To support consistency and harness momentum, the winter planning framework sets out expectations for Health Boards to work with partners to build on these priorities and develop enhanced interventions for the winter period. These priorities include:
- - A national communications campaign to raise awareness of NHS 111 Wales, encouraging the public to use the 111 service as a first port of call for free, trusted health information to help ensure they access the right service, first time;
  - Optimising the role of third sector services to improve experience and outcomes for vulnerable people who access care in Emergency Departments or hospitals;
  - Increasing opportunities for people with urgent care complaints to be assessed and treated away from the Emergency Department and within Urgent Primary Care Centres;
  - £3m for the recruitment of 100 new ambulance clinicians expected to be operational by the end of December;
  - Increasing emergency ambulance response capacity through implementation of new staff rosters to deliver efficiency equivalent to around 70 whole time equivalents;
  - Reducing long ambulance patient handover delays to improve experience and unlock ambulance capacity;
  - A further £2m has been made available for health boards to improve their emergency department environments, to enhance patient experiences this winter; and
  - Extending same day emergency care services to seven-day accessibility to help people who may have ordinarily been admitted to hospital to return home to sleep in their own bed.
In addition, Health Boards and Local Authorities have developed plans to increase community bed or bed equivalent capacity ahead of the winter period. These plans will aim to deliver additional step down to recover provision and community responses through a shared endeavour amongst partners.

This additional capacity will be delivered alongside additional measures to boost the community care workforce, and is a key element of our enhanced winter planning approach. It will support people to return home or to their local communities when ready and as a consequence it should improve timeliness of care in other parts of the urgent and emergency care system.

I expect Health Boards to work collaboratively with partners through Regional Partnership Boards to refine plans, drawing on learning from the previous winter and the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, with a focus on patient safety and wellbeing.

Health Boards will be expected to submit winter resilience plans to their respective Boards for approval, and a review of each Health Board’s plan will form part of Welsh Government Integrated Quality Planning and Delivery meetings in October.

I will provide Members with further updates throughout the winter period.
11/10/2022
Jane Hutt – 2022 Statement on National Hate Crime Awareness Week

The statement made by Jane Hutt, the Welsh Minister for Social Justice, on 10 October 2022.

National Hate Crime Awareness Week is an annual campaign of action to raise awareness of hate crime, highlight the importance of reporting incidents, and signpost people to the support available.

This year, our Wales Hate Support Centre provider, Victim Support Cymru, has helped to co-ordinate a range of activities across Wales to mark the week, collaborating with police, local authorities, and the third sector. These activities have been developed under the theme, Wales Together, which underlines the importance of communities uniting against hate in all its forms. Victim Support Cymru has also co-produced a partner pack with resources to help stakeholders to deliver themed messaging throughout the week, with each day focusing on a different strand of hate crime.

On 11 October 2022, I will be speaking at the Young People and Hate in Modern Wales event hosted by Victim Support Cymru. The event will explore the harmful and isolating impact of hate crime on the lives of children and young people and provide a forum to highlight best practice in supporting those who have experienced hate.

It has been another important year of progress in Wales. We have embedded action to tackle hate crime in both the forthcoming Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan and the LGBTQ+ Action Plan, demonstrating a strategic approach to this issue. Our plans have been shaped by the views of the people of Wales, and it is clear from their input that tackling hate crime is a priority. The Welsh Government is committed to creating an anti-racist nation by 2030, where everyone is valued for who they are and the contribution they make. Tackling hate crime is a pivotal to this vision, and the actions contained in the plan are driving us forward towards this goal.

These action plans have fed into the work plan of the Welsh Government ‘s Hate and Community Tension Board Cymru. Through this board, we are working alongside the four Police forces in Wales, British Transport Police, Crown Prosecution Service Cymru-Wales, the Offices of the Police and Crime Commissioners, and Victim Support Cymru to take the work plan forward.

A fundamental part of our work to tackle hate crime is the Wales Hate Support Centre. In April, the Welsh Government launched this new support service, run by Victim Support Cymru, to provide an independent and high-quality support and advocacy service which promotes victim-centred choices for all victims of hate crime across Wales. The Centre is using innovative outreach and engagement methods to ensure it is reaching socially and geographically excluded communities and is focused on inclusiveness and intersectionality. The service is free and available 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

As part of this new service, the Wales Hate Support Centre is providing support to children and young people. Last year, the Welsh Government commissioned research into their experiences and their awareness of hate crime. The research highlighted gaps in knowledge and support for children and young people who experience hate, and a clear requirement for a service which better suited their needs. In response, this service will provide tailored and appropriate support and advocacy together with awareness-raising and engagement work with children and young people and the professionals that support them. This is part of a wider training and engagement programme delivered by the Centre to diverse audiences from all sectors across Wales.

To coincide with National Hate Crime Awareness Week, the Welsh Government is delivering a short burst of its anti-hate campaign, Hate Hurts Wales. This will include television and online advertising, running across ITV, S4C, Facebook, and Instagram. The aim is to supplement the awareness-raising activities happening across Wales and to encourage people to report. We are currently in the process of procuring the contract to deliver the next phase of Hate Hurts Wales, which will run until at least March 2024.

The Hate Crime in Schools Project ended in March 2022, with 145 schools across Wales receiving hate crime awareness raising training and critical thinking sessions. The Welsh Local Government Association delivered the project on behalf of Welsh Government and has produced an evaluation report. We are now considering how best to take forward the recommendations and learning from the project.

We have recently agreed to fund the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust to employ a support worker to encourage communities in Wales to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day 2023 through community events and activities. The Trust’s mission to highlight the dangers of allowing hate to go unchallenged is as important as ever and strongly links with our wider work to make Wales an anti-racist nation.

The National Hate Crime Statistics for England and Wales 2021/2022 were published by the Home Office on 6 October. The statistics show a 35% increase in recorded hate crimes across Wales compared to 2020/2021. There were 6,295 recorded hate crimes across the four Welsh Police Force Areas of which:

3,888 (62%) were race hate crimes;
1,329 (21%) were sexual orientation hate crimes;
227 (4%) were religion hate crimes;
864 (14%) were disability hate crimes; and
247 (4%) were transgender hate crimes.
It is uncertain to what degree the increase in police recorded hate crime is due to continued recording improvements, alongside the range of work to encourage victims to report incidents. For example, our Hate Hurts Wales campaign ran during half of 2021/2022 (October 2021 to March 2022) with digital communications, targeted outdoor advertising, and television advertising all aimed at increasing the confidence of victims to come forward and report. Nevertheless, any increase in hate crime is concerning and an indication of why our continued work in this area is required.

We are still waiting a response from the UK Government to the recommendations of the Law Commission’s Final Report on Hate Crime Laws, published in December 2021. I wrote to the UK Government this year to ask that it accept with immediate effect the recommendation that the aggravated offences which currently exist for race and religion should be extended to all other existing characteristics within the hate crime legislative regime, including sexual orientation and transgender identity. This would send out a clear message that hate crime motivated by sexual orientation, transgender identity, and disability is unacceptable and there are serious consequences for those perpetrating these hateful actions, but no action has been taken yet by the UK Government.

We want a Wales where everyone thrives and feels valued. The National Survey for Wales 2021 to 2022 showed that 84% of adults agreed that people from different backgrounds get on well together, while 82% agreed that people treat each other with respect and consideration. This is a positive indicator that we have connected communities with shared values in Wales, and a solid platform to work together to eliminate hate and prejudice from society.

11/10/2022
Vaughan Gething – 2022 Statement on the Arfor 2 Programme
The statement made by Vaughan Gething, the Welsh Minister for the Economy, on 10 October 2022.

I am pleased to inform Members that as part of the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru, I have agreed proposals for an Arfor 2 programme.

A budget of £11m is being made available over the 3-year period 2022/23 – 2024/24 to support the programme which will, alongside our wider support package, deliver a range of economic interventions aimed at promoting entrepreneurship, business growth, community resilience and the Welsh language.

We have been working with Cefin Campbell MS, the Designated Member and local authority partners in the spirit of co-production to develop proposals which build on the learning from the original 2-year Arfor programme (2019/20 – 20/21) which sought to pilot a number of activities. The findings of the independent evaluation of that programme have also been key to help shape this new programme.

The Arfor 2 programme, which is to be delivered by the local authorities, will be operational in Gwynedd, Anglesey, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire. It will support a number of strategic interventions, including a focus on opportunities for young people and families to enable them to stay or return to their home communities – and to fulfil their aspirations locally.

This programme will make an important contribution to the Welsh Government’s wider Welsh language strategy – Cymraeg 2050 which aims to reach a million Welsh speakers by 2050 and aims to complement existing or planned activity which is of relevance for example Business Wales, Big Ideas, SMART innovation, Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan and other programmes.

The Arfor 2 programme will seek:
- To create opportunities for young people and families (under 35 years old) to stay in or return to their home communities – supporting them to succeed locally by engaging in enterprise or developing a career.
- To create enterprising communities within Welsh-speaking areas – by supporting commercial and community enterprises that aim to preserve and increase local wealth by taking advantage of the identity and unique qualities of their areas.
- To maximise the benefit of activity through collaboration– to ensure that good practice and lessons learnt are shared and that there is on-going monitoring to ensure continuous improvement.
- Strengthen the identity of communities with a high density of Welsh speakers – by supporting the use and visibility of the Welsh language, encouraging a sense of place.
The Arfor 2 programme will also look to promote the learning and sharing of good practice and to broaden our understanding of the links between economy and language, and where relevant housing, and identify those interventions which can make a difference.

Work will now continue on the detail of the proposed interventions, and I will update Members as the programme progresses.
11/10/2022
Julie James – 2022 Statement on Building Safety in Wales

The statement made by Julie James, the Welsh Minister for Climate Change, on 7 October 2022.

I have always made it clear that I do not expect leaseholders to bear the cost of repairing fire safety issues that are not of their making and that I expect developers to step up to their responsibilities.

I am very pleased that following our roundtable meeting in July a number of major developers have acknowledged their responsibility by signing up to the Welsh Government’s Developers Pact. This confirms their intention to address fire safety issues in buildings of 11 metres and over in height that they have developed over the last 30 years. These developers are Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey, Lovell, McCarthy and Stone, Countryside, Vistry, Redrow, Crest Nicholson and Barratt.

I met with these developers yesterday to confirm next steps, and their plans and timescales for remediation. I wish to commend them for their engagement to date and look forward to a productive relationship in the future. In some cases, developers have started their remediation works, and are making the repairs necessary. I look forward to this work continuing at pace.

I remain disappointed that three developers are yet to provide me with assurances that they do not have any medium or high-rise developments in Wales or, if they do, are prepared to meet their responsibilities in respect of these developments.

The three developers yet to reply are: Laing O’Rourke, Westmark, and Kier (now Tilia).

I am urging these developers to contact my officials immediately to confirm their position. I want to make clear I am exploring all options, including legislation, to ensure that those developers will face consequences for their unwillingness to accept their responsibilities.

I am proud of the commitment we have made in Wales that a holistic approach is necessary to effectively address fire safety issues. This means that both internal and external factors are considered, rather than a focus on cladding alone.

I have made £375 million available to tackle building safety and have taken steps to ensure all appropriate routes are being explored to make sure that all medium and high-rise buildings in Wales are as safe as they can be from fire.

To deliver on this commitment, it is essential that we understand the needs of individual buildings and design bespoke solutions to best address their fire risk. A comprehensive survey provides this information, and the Welsh Building Safety Fund, which is still open for expressions of interest from responsible persons, is supporting this aim.

Both the digital and intrusive survey work is paid for by the Welsh Government. By funding and commissioning the surveys, Welsh Government will gain a clear, consistent and comprehensive picture of building safety issues across Wales.

Where buildings are found to be low risk, our consultants will provide an EWS1 certificate. This will help to reassure leaseholders and remove barriers to them accessing financial products such as mortgages.

To date, the digital surveys have identified 163 buildings across Wales that require intrusive surveys. All responsible persons have been contacted to advise them of the need for intrusive surveys, and to arrange for permission to access the building to undertake this work.

In some cases, our consultants have faced restricted access to buildings, which has delayed our programme of surveys. I would urge responsible persons to do all they can to facilitate access, so that our surveyors can continue this important work. I have written to responsible persons / managing agents to press this message.

I have been made aware that in a number of cases, survey work was undertaken prior to the launch of the Welsh Building Safety Fund, funded by residents, building owners or managing agents. Where this has happened, and subject to certain eligibility criteria being met, surveys costs will be reimbursed by Welsh Government. If responsible persons / managing agents are in this position, please contact my officials at buildingsafety@gov.wales.

While it is right that developers are accountable, building owners and Managing Agents also have accountabilities when it comes to ensuring the safety of buildings and it is important that effective maintenance programmes are in place.   I would encourage all residents to assure themselves that maintenance on their buildings is being carried out in accordance with their lease agreements.

I am also aware that in some cases, leaseholders are in severe financial difficulties as a result of fire safety issues and to address this I launched the Leaseholder Support Scheme in June.

As I committed when I launched the scheme, I have instructed officials to review the criteria to ensure that those in greatest need are receiving support. This review is underway, and I will announce any further changes to the scheme and eligibility criteria shortly.

Building Safety in Wales must both address our present situation and undertake fundamental reform of the building safety regime to ensure the problems we face now cannot arise again in future. Alongside investment over the next three years for building safety work, plans are underway for a significant programme of legislative and cultural reform to establish a fit for purpose building safety regime in Wales. Reforming the current system of building safety is a key commitment for this Government and also forms an important part of our Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru. In addition to this, a number of provisions that apply in relation to Wales were included within the UK Building Safety Act 2022.

The Act received Royal Assent in April 2022. The provisions that apply in relation to Wales focus primarily on the reform of the building control system (Part 3 of the Act) but do extend to other areas, including several provisions intended to add further protection for leaseholders.

Some of the key provisions which have been commenced include:

•         Amendment of the Building (Approved Inspectors etc.) Regulations 2010 to make the approved inspector sector more resilient and flexible in the face of insurance market fluctuations, and to create alignment on insurance requirements between approved inspectors and other professions

•     The extension of the Defective Premises Act 1972 time periods and provision to deal with the lack of redress availability where a development company no longer exists.

We have completed our design and construction phase transition plan which enables us over the next three years to make the legislative changes necessary to ensure that the problems identified with the current building control regimes are rectified.

The first of the public consultations on this work was published in September. This consultation is focused on the rules and standards we will expect Building Control Bodies both in the public and private sector to comply with.

This can be found on the Welsh Government Consultation pages.

https://gov.wales/operational-standards-rules

A full understanding of the impacts of any proposed changes is integral to this new regime, as is providing all stakeholders the opportunity to shape future policy. To this end expect to see further related consultations over the coming months.

We will be publishing more detail of our transition plan on our webpages shortly.

11/10/2022
G7 – 2022 Joint Statement on Ukraine
The joint statement issued by G7 leaders on 11 October 2022.

G7 Statement on Ukraine, 11 October 2022
1. We, the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), convened today with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Our meeting took place against the backdrop of the most recent missile attacks against civilian infrastructure and cities across Ukraine, leading to the death of innocent civilians. We condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms and recall that indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilian populations constitute a war crime. We will hold President Putin and those responsible to account.
2. The G7 firmly condemn and unequivocally reject the illegal attempted annexation by Russia of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions in addition to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol. We solemnly reiterate that we will never recognise this illegal annexation or the sham referenda that Russia uses to justify it.
3. Russia has blatantly violated the principles enshrined in the UN Charter. They cannot and do not give Russia a legitimate basis to change Ukraine’s borders. We call upon all countries to unequivocally reject these violations of international law and demand that Russia cease all hostilities and immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its troops and military equipment from Ukraine.
4. We have imposed and will continue to impose further economic costs on Russia, including on individuals and entities – inside and outside of Russia – providing political or economic support for Russia’s illegal attempts to change the status of Ukrainian territory.
5. We deplore deliberate Russian escalatory steps, including the partial mobilisation of reservists and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric, which is putting global peace and security at risk. We reaffirm that any use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by Russia would be met with severe consequences.
6. We condemn Russia’s actions at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant and the pressure exerted on the personnel of the facility. This is a further irresponsible escalation and we will hold Russia responsible for any incident caused by their actions. The safety, security and safeguards of the nuclear facility are paramount and we support the International Atomic Energy Agency’s efforts in this regard.
7. We reiterate our call on the Belarusian authorities to stop enabling the Russian war of aggression by permitting Russian armed forces to use Belarusian territory and by providing support to the Russian military. The announcement of a joint military group with Russia constitutes the most recent example of the Belarusian regime’s complicity with Russia. We renew our call on the Lukashenko regime to fully abide by its obligations under international law.
8. We reaffirm our full support to Ukraine’s independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty in its internationally recognised borders. In line with international law, in particular the UN Charter, Ukraine has the legitimate right to defend itself against Russian aggression and to regain full control of its territory within its internationally recognised borders.
9. We reassured President Zelenskyy that we are undeterred and steadfast in our commitment to providing the support Ukraine needs to uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity. We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal support and will stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes. We are committed to supporting Ukraine in meeting its winter preparedness needs.
10. With a view to a viable post-war peace settlement, we remain ready to reach arrangements together with interested countries and institutions and Ukraine on sustained security and other commitments to help Ukraine defend itself, secure its free and democratic future, and deter future Russian aggression. We will continue to coordinate efforts to meet Ukraine’s urgent requirements for military and defense equipment. We look forward to the outcomes of the International Expert Conference on the Recovery, Reconstruction and Modernisation of Ukraine on October 25.
11. No country wants peace more than Ukraine, whose people have suffered death, displacement and countless atrocities as the result of Russian aggression. In solidarity with Ukraine, the G7 Leaders welcome President Zelenskyy’s readiness for a just peace. This should include the following elements: respecting the UN Charter’s protection of territorial integrity and sovereignty; safeguarding Ukraine’s ability to defend itself in the future; ensuring Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction, including exploring avenues to do so with funds from Russia; pursuing accountability for Russian crimes committed during the war.
12. We are deeply troubled by the deliberate damage to the Nordstream pipelines in international waters in the Baltic Sea and strongly condemn any deliberate disruption of critical infrastructure. We welcome ongoing investigations.
13. We will act in solidarity and close coordination to address the negative impact of Russia’s aggression for global economic stability, including by continuing to cooperate to ensure energy security and affordability across the G7 and beyond.
11/10/2022
Therese Coffey – 2022 Comments on Covid Backlog

The comments made by Therese Coffey, the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 11 October 2022.

My number one priority is delivering for patients and we’re getting on with the job of tackling the issues that affect people most – ambulances, backlogs, care, doctors and dentists.

Today I’m announcing the approval of 10 new community diagnostic centres which are helping to bust the COVID-19 backlogs by delivering vital tests, checks and scans in local areas.

They have delivered over 2 million checks over the past year, diagnosing conditions from cancer to lung disease – and we’re on track to open up to 160 centres across the country by 2025, delivering an additional 17 million checks.

11/10/2022
Lynne Neagle – 2022 Speech on the Minimum Unit Price for Alcohol

The speech made by Lynne Neagle, the Welsh Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing, on 6 October 2022.

On 2 March 2020, a minimum unit price of 50p was introduced for alcohol sold in Wales to help tackle alcohol-related harm by reducing the amount of alcohol drunk by hazardous and harmful drinkers.

We undertook to carry out a review of the minimum price for alcohol legislation after two years. This statement sets out how this will take place.

It will help us understand the current impact of the legislation, including the implications from the pandemic. It will also help us to understand whether the current pricing structure of 50p per unit is appropriate and is having the desired effects of reducing alcohol related harms.

We commissioned an independent evaluation of the Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Wales) Act 2018, which will take the form of a contribution analysis. This has four distinct parts (lots).

Lot 1: Contribution analysis

The contribution analysis is a theory-based evaluation method, appropriate to the review of complex, multi-level programmes of work where direct causal attributions are not possible^[1]. This approach is appropriate for evaluating the impact of minimum pricing as an MUP will not be the only factor which may impact on alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm.

The evaluation approach will take account of this and assess the contribution the policy has made to any observed changes in outcomes.

The contribution analysis will look at the wider context of alcohol policy and bring together the relevant datasets and the findings from the individual studies in Wales and evaluation work undertaken in Scotland to inform the assessment of the contribution that the introduction of minimum pricing has made to the policy objectives.

The report from this component of the evaluation can only be produced when the reports from the other three studies have been produced, as this brings all the elements together into the overall assessment.

Lot 2: Research into the impact on retailers

This element will assess the experience and impact of the implementation of the Act on retailers.

A baseline report from this element of the evaluation was published on 30 November 2021. It presents the first set of findings from longitudinal qualitative research with Welsh alcohol retailers undertaken before the introduction of the minimum price for alcohol in Wales.

The research explores retailers’ understanding and views of the minimum pricing policy prior to its introduction and their expectations for the effects of the policy. Interviews were conducted with 30 retailers from across five Welsh regions. The sample included independents and chains, large and small retailers, and a mix of alcohol licence types (on-trade, off-trade, and both). This baseline research will be followed by two further waves of interviews with retailers.

The report also incorporates the quantitative analysis plan, providing details on the methods to be used for evaluating the impact of the minimum price for alcohol on retailers, using Kantar data to make a quantitative assessment of the impact.

Lot 3: Work with services and service users

The aim of this qualitative research is to assess both the experience and impact of minimum pricing on services and service users (including exploring the extent to which switching between substances may have been a consequence of the legislation). An initial piece of work exploring this was commissioned to inform implementation of the Act. The report from this baseline work was published on 24 October 2019.

Data will be gathered though an online survey with service users and service providers. Interviews with both groups are also undertaken to explore findings in more detail.

Lot 4: Assessment of the impact of introducing minimum price for alcohol on wider population of drinkers.

The aim of this final component is to explore the impact of the minimum price for alcohol legislation on the wider population, including moderate, hazardous and harmful drinkers. A baseline report was published on 8 July 2021. The report focuses on data collected prior to the implementation of the policy in March 2020. The main aim of the study was to examine the potential impact of the new legislation on drinkers in Wales and to gather baseline information that can be used to monitor the impact of minimum pricing over the five-year study period.

Data were collected through online survey questionnaires which were completed by 179 drinkers recruited through social media advertisements and announcements on two Welsh university intranet websites. Interviews were conducted with 41 drinkers recruited through the National Survey for Wales, two universities, third sector organisations and the online survey.

A further report was published on 24 March 2022, presenting the results from a second wave of qualitative interviews from the longitudinal sample. The aim of this additional wave of interviews was to undertake a detailed qualitative study of the impact of the pandemic on the drinking behaviour of the longitudinal sample to provide context for future interpretation of the data.

Each of the four parts of the evaluation is undertaking fieldwork for an interim assessment of the implementation of the legislation. The findings from each of the four lots will be published during the autumn – the interim report from the contribution analysis is due in February 2023.

The findings of these evaluation lots will make up the two-year review. I will make a further written statement which will set out the key findings once the last of the evaluation reports has been published.

A further round of fieldwork will be undertaken for each component of the evaluation during autumn and winter 2023. These findings will contribute towards the final evaluation reports, which will be available during summer of 2024 and will inform the report on the operation and effect of the legislation, which Welsh Ministers are required to prepare under section 21 of the 2018 Act.

[1] Mayne, J. (2008) Contribution analysis: An approach to exploring cause and effect. The Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) Initiative.

11/10/2022
Jane Hutt – 2022 Statement on Funding for Tackling Food Poverty

The statement made by Jane Hutt, the Welsh Minister for Social Justice, on 4 October 2022.

As energy prices continue to rise and people struggle with the impact of rising inflation on their household income, local authorities, food banks and community support groups across Wales are reporting a rise in the number of people accessing food banks and other community food provision. In some areas, organisations have experienced more than 100% increase in demand for emergency food. At the same time, as a result of the cost of living crisis, organisations have experienced a drop in donations.

As part of our commitment to prioritise support for people affected by the cost of living crisis, today I am announcing a further £1 million for tackling food poverty. This additional funding builds on the £3.9 million allocated already this financial year by the Welsh Government to help alleviate food poverty and tackle the root causes of food poverty.

The funding will support community food organisations to overcome barriers to accessing sufficient supplies. It will enable them to purchase food, baby products such as milk and other essential goods such as period products and cleaning products which will help facilitate and maintain well-being, healthy diets and personal dignity.

The funding can also be used to support initiatives such as baby banks, clothes banks and uniform banks. It can also be used to purchase and distribute warms goods packs and equipment which will help keep vulnerable people warm this winter.

The funding can support initiatives which will help families save money on food by building their food knowledge and skills, for example, through the delivery of cooking sessions where households are provided with food and recipes as well as cooking equipment such as slow cookers or pressure cookers.

The funding can also be used to support action to maximise income and increase the uptake of benefits such as Healthy Start vouchers and initiatives which support households to pay essential bills such as our Welsh Government Fuel Support Scheme and our Fuel Voucher and Heat Fund Scheme.

The additional £1m will be distributed through local authorities in Wales in the coming weeks. Organisations that might wish to benefit from this support should contact their local authority to discuss.

11/10/2022
Eluned Morgan – 2022 Comments on Reducing Bowel Cancer Screening Age

The comments made by Eluned Morgan, the Welsh Minister for Health and Social Services, on 4 October 2022.

It is great to see the next phase of our plan to widen access to bowel cancer screening come into effect.

We have previously introduced the more user-friendly test and started inviting those aged 58-59. This next phase of the programme widens access to those aged 55-57.

This move will help us to identity more bowel cancer cases early and support improvement in survival rates.

I’m also pleased to see that more people are taking part in the programme and that the uptake rate now meets the expected standard.
In future, we plan to continue to optimise the programme by lowering the age range to 50 and increasing the sensitivity of the test until we come into line with UK recommendations.

11/10/2022