National Assembly for Wales

Yes.

The Welsh Government is contributing £1,022 towards the cost of a visit to Wales by a Canadian social media influencer.

Officials have developed a programme to promote Wales as an all-year-round destination to the hundreds of thousands of followers that she has on social media.

The Small Grants – Horticulture Start-Up and Horticulture Development schemes operate with different application processes.

54 expressions of interest were received for window 1 of the Small Grants – Horticulture Start-up scheme. All were invited to submit a full application, of which 36 were received. Following appraisal of the full applications, 19 contracts were offered.

12 applications were received for window 1 of the Horticulture Development scheme. Following appraisal, 12 contracts were offered. 

The estimated number of households in fuel poverty in Wales over the last ten years is detailed below:

Source: Living in Wales Property Survey 2008 and Welsh Housing Conditions Survey 2017-18

Please note that the 2012-2016 estimates are projected figures based on the 2008 Living in Wales Property Survey. The 2018 estimate is from the Welsh Housing Conditions Survey (WHCS) 2017-18 and the 2021 figures are modelled estimates based on the WHCS 2017-18. Due to the fact that some figures are modelled and some are true estimates, along with changes in definitions and methodology over time the figures are not directly comparable but are a good indicator of the number of households in fuel poverty at each time point as such these figures should not be summed.   

 Links to relevant publications: 

The production of estimated levels of fuel poverty in Wales | GOV.WALES

Fuel poverty estimates for Wales: 2018 | GOV.WALES

Fuel poverty modelled estimates for Wales: as at October 2021 | GOV.WALES

Relative income poverty data for the number of people living in poverty in Wales is available on the Stats Wales website. The data is broken down using a range of criteria – for example, employment type, disability, ethnic group, housing tenure. Data is available for both the number and % of people in households in poverty, by adjusting the measure selected.

The data can be accessed here.

Substantive response

Welsh Government provides funding to Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to provide a Flood Warning Service. The NRW Flood Warning Service covers flooding from main rivers and the sea only. Over the last 10 years (since 1 January 2013), NRW have issued the following:

A full description of NRW’s Flood Warning service can be found here

'This work has been carried out in collaboration with Siân Gwenllian MS, the Plaid Cymru designated lead member, as part of the Co-operation Agreement between the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru.’

Our National Strategy for Flooding and Coastal Erosion Risk Management identified that there are 245,000 properties at risk of flooding in Wales. This number will be subject to change as the impacts of climate change take effect. Sea level rise, combined with increased storm intensity and frequency, mean that the number of properties at risk of flooding will increase without further investments in Flood Risk Management Infrastructure.

That is why we are making record levels of investment in Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management. This financial year we have provided Risk Management Authorities across Wales with over £71m of funding. This will pay for the building new flood assets, maintenance of existing assets, development of future schemes, natural flood management, property flood resilience measures, mapping, modelling and awareness raising.

Over the previous government term, our Flood Risk Management Programme reduced the risk to 31,000 properties, with a further 15,000 properties benefitting from our ongoing Coastal Risk Management Programme. Protecting communities from the impacts of flooding and sea-level rise is a priority for us, and we have committed to protecting an additional 45,000 properties this term.

‘This work is being carried out in collaboration with Sian Gwenllian MS, the Plaid Cymru lead designated member, as part of the Co-operation Agreement between the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru.’

A budget of £375 million has been provided over the next three years to fund remediation work.  In Wales, this work will go beyond cladding and take a holistic approach to remediation, including compartmentation and fire suppression systems. 

Our spending forecast for remediation and repair work in 2022/23 financial year, is £75 million. 

Through our Welsh Building Safety Fund, we have received 261 Expressions of Interest.  Of these, we have identified 163 sites which require intrusive survey work.  These surveys identify the any fire safety issues present and the action required to address these issues.

A budget of £375 million has been provided over the next three years to fund remediation work.  In Wales, this work will go beyond cladding and take a holistic approach to remediation, including compartmentation and fire suppression systems. 

Our spending forecast for remediation and repair work in 2022/23 financial year, is £75 million. 

Through our Welsh Building Safety Fund, we have received 261 Expressions of Interest.  Of these, we have identified 163 sites which require intrusive survey work.  These surveys identify the any fire safety issues present and the action required to address these issues.

Our approach in Wales on land and in our seas is to build ecological resilience so our most precious habitats and species are given the best chance to recover and thrive improving all our wellbeing. Working in partnership with NRW and Heritage Lottery we are investing £15m to support the delivery of the Nature Networks Programme in 2022/23 to improve the condition, connectivity and resilience of Wales’ marine and terrestrial protected sites network.

Given the importance of tackling the nature and climate emergencies we will be increasing funding over the next two years to further support and expand important initiatives such as our Nature Networks and Peatland Programmes whilst also ensuring we can continue to build capacity to coordinate local action through the Local Nature Partnerships. This will enable us to take critical action to help us meet our 30 by 30 target and actions identified by the biodiversity deep dive.

To ensure our seas remain resilient and well-managed, the Marine Protected Area Management Steering Group produces an annual action plan which is now supported by a Welsh Government funded grant scheme. The latest proposals for 2023-24 are now being considered by the Steering Group and seek to address and enhance understanding of a variety of pressures facing our marine environment.     

I am committed to working in social partnership with unions and employers to explore ways to resolve the current dispute. It would not be helpful or appropriate to reveal specific details of these on-going discussions at this time.

It is clear in our Planned Care Recovery Plan that we are committed to the development of regional treatment centres or centres of excellence across Wales.

Whilst this work continues, health boards are redesigning the way services are delivered to ensure there is protected green capacity for elective treatment to be carried out.

I am committed to working in social partnership with unions and employers to explore ways to resolve the current dispute. It would not be helpful or appropriate to reveal specific details of these on-going discussions at this time.

Welsh Government does not directly fund Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust (WAST). The Emergency Ambulance Services Committee (EASC) is responsible for planning and securing emergency ambulance services for the population of Wales. The Committee, made up of the seven chief executives of Health Boards, sets out commissioning requirements for, and allocates funding to, the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust directly.

The annual accounts of WAST provide their revenue from patient care activities which includes their funding from EASC and other sources. The following table provides their revenue for the last 10 years as recorded in their audited accounts.

Welsh Ambulance Service Trust – Revenue from patient activities

Information on the number of ambulance staff employed by the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust is available on StatsWales: https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Health-and-Social-Care/NHS-Staff/Non-Medical-Staff/othernonmedicalstaff-by-jobtype-areaofwork-year

I can confirm that ECCW has not been stood up in the last 12 months to support the response to NHS pressure.

ECCW will provide the Welsh Government level link into the UK Government Contingency arrangements led by Cabinet Office for an all-Wales Civil Contingency scenario; if we need to mobilise the health and/or care system for a civil contingency (flooding, fire, major incident) outside the planned pressures that we know will arise.

Pressures on the NHS are managed from within Health & Social Services through the Executive Director Team weekly Contingency meeting as part of their approach to planned pressures.

I can confirm that I have sent a remit letter to both the NHS pay review body and the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration on the 19 December 2022. In addition, I have also sent evidence to both review bodies on their deadline date of 11 January 2023.

A copy of the evidence documents can be found at:

https://www.nhsconfed.org/publications/review-body-doctors-and-dentists-remuneration-evidence-welsh-governments-health-and

https://www.nhsconfed.org/publications/nhs-pay-review-body-evidence-welsh-governments-health-and-social-services-group-2022-0