FMQ
Janet Finch-Saunders
I’m really pleased that Sian Gwenllian has actually raised this again, and I would urge all north Wales AMs to make similar calls and to hold you to account, First Minister. This has been going on for years. Sian is quite right to mention there are 141 long-term vacancies. We have hospital wards in north Wales that have closed down for several months. We’ve met with the British Medical Association, we’ve met with other medical professionals, and there is a distinct need—it’s been proven—for a training centre somewhere in north Wales. The fact is, and the statistics prove this, that those who train in Cardiff move over into England. We cannot recruit. The Betsi board cannot recruit. Now, this is a board that’s in special measures. It’s got Welsh Government intervention, and yet it is failing at every level in terms of staff recruitment, in terms of keeping wards open. When are you, and when is your Cabinet Secretary, who consistently sits here during health questions shaking his head—? Well, I’m sorry, but you and the Cabinet Secretary—. We’re here to scrutinise you, and you are failing the patients of north Wales, you’re failing the health board, and you’re failing the actual staff who work there. We are in crisis in north Wales. We need a training centre in Bangor. The costs, as Sian has pointed out quite well, are there to be—. We cannot keep taking locum staff—
We want a long-term solution. You’re the one who has the levers to do this; please, can we have a training school in Bangor?
Carwyn Jones - Y Prif Weinidog / The First Minister
Well, I agree with her when she says she wants more training opportunities in the north. There’s no distance between us on that; it’s how it’s delivered. She’s asking, ‘Can it be an independent medical school?’ Well, we know that that’s not what is recommended. We know it would be difficult because big medical schools are in big cities with big hospitals, which have a far greater spread of specialities. What can be done, however, is to make sure that Bangor is tied in—the whole of the north is tied in—more completely with Cardiff and Swansea, and that we move to put in place a system of development over the next few years in order to provide better opportunities in the north. That’s the way to do it. It’s important to be able to link Bangor with the bigger hospitals to provide the training opportunities in the most comprehensive way. I think everybody in the medical profession understands that. I get the point that we need to provide more training opportunities in the north. I don’t dispute what the Member for Arfon has said. It’s a question now of not, ‘Do we do it?’ but ‘What is the most effective way of doing it?’, and we believe we’ve outlined that.
Welsh Government debate - Open Data Plan
Y Llywydd / The Llywydd
Rwyf wedi dethol y pedwar gwelliant i’r cynnig. Galwaf ar Janet Finch-Saunders i gynnig gwelliannau 1, 2 a 3, a gyflwynwyd yn enw Paul Davies. Janet Finch-Saunders.
I have selected the four amendments to the motion. I call on Janet Finch-Saunders to move amendments 1, 2 and 3, tabled in the name of Paul Davies. Janet Finch-Saunders.
Gwelliant 1—Paul Davies
Amendment 1—Paul Davies
Ychwanegu pwynt newydd ar ddiwedd y cynnig:
Add as new point at end of motion:
Yn galw ar Lywodraeth Cymru i weithio gyda sefydliadau cyhoeddus, preifat a thrydydd sector i wella prosesau rhannu data a lleihau dyblygu yn y broses o gasglu data ledled Cymru.
Calls on the Welsh Government to work with public, private and third sector organisations to improve data-sharing and reduce duplication in data collection across Wales.
Gwelliant 2—Paul Davies
Amendment 2—Paul Davies
Ychwanegu pwynt newydd ar ddiwedd y cynnig:
Add as new point at end of motion:
Yn cydnabod rôl Llywodraeth Cymru yn y broses o gydweithio â rhanddeiliaid a chyrff allweddol i sicrhau bod casglu data yn canolbwyntio ar gael y wybodaeth gywir i ddylanwadu ar newidiadau cadarnhaol mewn polisi a'u cyflawni.
Recognises the role of the Welsh Government in collaborating with key bodies and stakeholders to ensure that data collection focuses on obtaining the right information to influence and deliver positive changes in policy.
Gwelliant 3—Paul Davies
Amendment 3—Paul Davies
Ychwanegu pwynt newydd ar ddiwedd y cynnig:
Add as new point at end of motion:
Yn credu y dylai Llywodraeth Cymru weithio i sicrhau bod awdurdodau lleol yn dilyn yr esiampl a osodir gan Gyngor Sir Fynwy a reolir gan y Ceidwadwyr drwy gyhoeddi ei holl wariant.
Believes that the Welsh Government should work to ensure that local authorities follow the example set by the Conservative-run Monmouthshire County Council in publishing all expenditure.
Cynigiwyd gwelliannau 1, 2 a 3.
Amendments 1, 2 and 3 moved.
Janet Finch-Saunders
Thank you. And I move those amendments, as mentioned. Of course, openness and transparency are key things that my Welsh Conservative colleagues and I have long expounded the virtues of in this Chamber. A debate on increasing openness and accessibility of data is long overdue. Our first amendment aims for the Welsh Government to work with public, private and third sector organisations to improve data sharing and reduce duplication in data collection across Wales. Time and again, as AMs, we meet with organisations, particularly in the health and third sectors, and they raise issues of data duplication or non-collection with us. A classic example is that we’re on our second poverty enquiry and, throughout all the workshops, whenever we’ve met with witnesses, they’ve been very concerned about how data is collected across various organisations, how it is then shared and how the Welsh Government themselves collect and store data.
For such organisations, as well as us as politicians, open data is, of course, a valuable tool for policy development, scrutiny and competition. For example, the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee found in July this year that some of the key weaknesses of the Communities First programme actually stemmed from policies that were developed and performances being monitored in the absence of any actual appropriate data. Further to this, our second amendment seeks to ensure that data collection focuses on obtaining the right information to influence and deliver positive changes in policy. As noted by the parliamentary review of health and social care in Wales, debated in the Chamber last week, data needs to be published for the public to enhance transparency, understanding and trust in the system. Our third amendment therefore calls for local authorities to follow the fine example set by the Conservative-run Monmouthshire County Council. They publish all expenditure—something we will be pushing for further in the forthcoming local government legislation.
Llywydd, open data is essential to policy progression, service development and public accountability, yet, sadly, there are other basic areas in which the Welsh Government’s commitment to open data fails. And, isn’t it interesting—I didn’t get my chance to ask the question to the First Minister earlier—but in freedom of information requests that are used because of the lack of open data, the Welsh Labour Government only responded in full to just 46 per cent of those requests. That isn’t good enough for an open and transparent Government at any level.
This summer, the Cardiff Open Data Institute found failings on the Welsh Government’s part in relation to the national procurement service, stating that it has no open data plan. The work on the digital framework does not consider the Government’s open data plan at all, and this is a pity because open data and procurement are perfect partners. And, of course, Leighton Andrews, a previous AM here, has actually compiled this report and I’m not sure that Members are, perhaps, even aware of this report. This has been out and published since March of this year. How this relates to local authorities, or to the people out there—our electors and taxpayers—I have no idea.
One aim of the plan is to increase the Wales openness rating to four stars by May this year. Yet, nowhere on the website is this rating even noted, and the UK open government partnership national action plan 2016-18 notes that work in this area needs to be ongoing until the end of the year. The Welsh Government has been reluctant to publish information relating to the sale of land by the regeneration investment fund for Wales, as well as information on ministerial and Cabinet decisions on the Circuit of Wales.
Finally, the open data plan aims to reduce the need for FOI requests and to reduce the need to aggregate data to respond to data collection requests. Yet, the Welsh Government, only months ago, insisted on disapplying legislative measures for public bodies to proactively publish facilities time through their Trade Union (Wales) Act 2017. And I’ve mentioned about how badly they respond to FOIs themselves.
Llywydd, we are supportive of the aims of this debate and this plan, yet I am concerned that this document is just empty words and hollow sentiment. I therefore call on the Welsh Government to commit to ensuring that the yearly progress report on this plan by the office of the chief digital officer will be debated in this Chamber on an annual basis to ensure that all parties here are able to actually effectively scrutinise this strategy.