National Assembly for Wales

The Welsh Government has a network of 20 overseas offices, most of which are based within British Embassy or Consulate buildings. The number of staff employed at each office is shown in the table below. 

The total cost of running the network is £4,684,000. This includes office rent, FCDO platform charges, staff salaries and on-costs. There is also a £750,000 network-wide activity budget for the overseas offices.

The Welsh Government has a network of 20 overseas offices, most of which are based within British Embassy or Consulate buildings. The number of staff employed at each office is shown in the table below. 

The total cost of running the network is £4,684,000. This includes office rent, FCDO platform charges, staff salaries and on-costs. There is also a £750,000 network-wide activity budget for the overseas offices.

The Welsh Government has a network of 20 overseas offices, most of which are based within British Embassy or Consulate buildings. The number of staff employed at each office is shown in the table below. 

The total cost of running the network is £4,684,000. This includes office rent, FCDO platform charges, staff salaries and on-costs. There is also a £750,000 network-wide activity budget for the overseas offices.

The Senedd Commission is committed to ensuring access to all our services and buildings for the deaf and hearing impaired. Equality Impact Assessments are made before any changes are carried out; we are compliant with legislation and follow best practice.  

Our Public Engagement and Communications Strategy sets out our plans for identifying and removing barriers to participation and engagement for disabled people. When undertaking engagement work on behalf of committees, we proactively target disabled people and disability organisations. 

Every week we broadcast British Sign Language interpretation of First Minister’s Question on Senedd TV. We have also piloted the use of BSL for other Ministerial statements, which has received positive feedback. We also subtitle video content on request.

The Senedd Commission has been accredited by the RNID as an accessible organisation and has won three RNID Cymru Excellence Wales awards for the provisions we have in place.

On our estate, services are available to facilitate engagement with people who are deaf or have a hearing loss, including a BSL interpreter, palantypists and lip speakers. Attendees at events, tours and meeting are asked if they require any reasonable adjustments as part of the planning process.  

Commission staff have undergone disability awareness training, with extra deaf awareness and BSL classes provided. Our Front of House and Security colleagues have undertaken disability confidence training.

The Commission is working with RNID as part of the Health and Social Care Committee’s inquiry into mental health inequalities. We are planning to use the BSL contacts that RNID has along with a transcribing tool to support the work of the Committee.

If there are any individual needs that you feel that are not being met, I am happy to meet and discuss.

There have been 27 Welsh Government funded projects that have used or are currently using a Project Bank Account.

Welsh Government departments are responsible for monitoring and enforcing the Project Bank Account policy.  All departments are required to provide details on the number of projects that have used or have committed to using a PBA on a 6 monthly basis to the First Minister.

I will be issuing a Written Statement providing an update on Project Bank Accounts in the near future.

Our Programme for Government sets out a commitment to develop a Tidal Lagoon Challenge and support ideas that can make Wales a world centre of emerging tidal technologies. This will help deliver vital socio-economic outcomes and help mitigate the effects of climate change.

The opportunities for renewable energy at Aberthaw, including the potential for tidal energy, are being discussed with Cardiff Capital Region and the Vale of Glamorgan Council.

The table below shows the breakdown of the trains currently in use by Transport for Wales.

The table below shows the breakdown of the number of services operated by Transport for Wales in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

The total spend to date for the airline operator contract and Anglesey Airport costs is: £2,163,361.83 for the period 1 April 2020 to 31 January 2022 inclusive.

In March 2020, the service operated a part month, so an exact figure cannot be calculated therefore this month has been excluded from our calculation.

Substantive response

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Substantive response

Information and communication with patients will be one of the priorities within the National Planned Care Recovery Plan that we will publish later this year. How NHS organisations work to ensure patients are kept well-informed and supported while they wait is essential as is the need to provide transparent and accessible information to patients.

We are considering how best this should be done as well as understanding the type of information that will be useful to patients waiting for outpatient appointments and elective surgeries. A number of approaches have been piloted by health boards over the last two years and we intend to take the learning from these to develop the appropriate solution for Wales.

In considering a digital platform the needs of those who are unable to engage digitally are very important so we will need to ensure that our solution is accessible by a variety of approaches.