Support our Nation today - please donate here
News

Welsh Government criticised for ‘unhealthy aversion’ to scrutiny during coronavirus pandemic

17 Apr 2020 4 minute read
Janet Finch-Saunders. Picture by the National Assembly (CC BY 2.0)

An opposition Assembly Member has condemned the Welsh Government’s “unhealthy aversion to scrutiny” after members received one sentence replies to questions, or none at all.

Aberconwy AM Janet Finch-Saunders AM said a growing number of members received responses stating only that ‘the Minister will write as soon as possible and that this will be published online’.

She said that she had also received a one sentence reply from the Health Minister, Vaughan Gething telling her that he did not have “any information” about the number of care home residents who had died.

Welsh Conservative leader Paul Davies AM has now written to the First Minister over growing concerns of the lack of scrutiny at this time of national emergency.

Janet Finch-Saunders said that she was “appalled by the Welsh Government’s recent unhealthy aversion to scrutiny”.

“Whilst I appreciate the tremendous strains that all Welsh Ministers are currently under, proper checks and balances must be upheld if we are to maintain confidence in our public institutions,” the Conservative AM said.

“With increased restrictions on plenary contributions and a limit to how many written questions we can submit, it is recklessly irresponsible for Welsh Ministers to avoid submitting full and proper replies to questions.

“As the official opposition in the National Assembly, the Welsh Conservative Group has promised that we will continue to constructively hold the Welsh Labour Government to account throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“With great swathes of public money at stake, including an additional funding package of £350 million for Wales, it is paramount that the Welsh Government remain open and transparent in the decisions they are taking.”

 

‘Parity’

Meanwhile, Plaid Cymru have called for pay rises to all NHS and social care staff in recognition of their work during the Coronavirus crisis.

Plaid Cymru Shadow Health Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth said that health and social care workers were putting their lives on the line during the crisis and “the least that could be done” was to raise their pay.

The Shadow Health Minister said care staff should have “parity of pay” with NHS staff by moving all social care staff to NHS terms and conditions.

“This crisis has truly exposed the year on year impact of cruel cuts and the way in which social care is seen as a second class service,” he said.

“With outbreaks in many care homes, the need for far better conditions and a valued workforce couldn’t be clearer. Imagine if all care homes had been supplied with PPE from the start? How many lives would have been saved?

“Plaid Cymru is therefore calling for all care staff to have parity of pay and terms and conditions with NHS staff by moving social care staff onto NHS terms and conditions. This would mean a pay rise for the majority of social care workers, as well finally putting an end to zero-hour contracts and casualisation.

“Our NHS workers also deserve better. Having experienced a decade of pay freezes and real terms cuts under austerity, we must spend the next decade doing the opposite and giving real terms rises to all – as well as ensuring proper bursaries for student nurses and protected training time.

“We also need to reverse the year on year on cuts to Local Government to ensure that they too are properly financed in order to properly remunerate care staff.

“Health and social care workers are putting their lives on the line for us through this crisis. The very least we can do is show them we value them by giving them access to testing, adequate PPE, and raising their pay and work conditions.

“I hope the positive that comes out of this nightmare is that we remember how much we treasure our health and care services, but also that we realise we have to pay for them properly.

“If we want a good, sustainable health and care service, we need to pay for it. We need the right resources, the right people, paid properly, and not carrying an unsustainable workload.”


Support our Nation today

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
10 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Ann Swindale
Ann Swindale
3 years ago

Pots and kettles from Tories then! What about scrutiny of Westminster Government?

Andrew John Teague
Andrew John Teague
3 years ago
Reply to  Ann Swindale

Exactly, hear hear. What proper critical analysis is there of UK governance.

Huw Davies
Huw Davies
3 years ago
Reply to  Ann Swindale

Labour only just waking up to their responsibility of holding Boris’ boys and girls to account. At least JF-S and her colleagues are a bit quicker off the mark here in Wales but much of that rings a bit shallow. However given that we are in “pots and kettles” territory it might be more appropriate for the electorate in Wales to take note and put both parties into redundancy at 2021 elections. To secure that highly unlikely outcome we need likes of Plaid to wake up to its responsibility on a regular and sustained basis, not the odd splutter, and… Read more »

Dr Dewi Evans
Dr Dewi Evans
3 years ago

Interesting that the Tories in the Senedd are oblivious to the numerous blunders made by THEIR Westminster government. Our Secretary of State Simon Hart appears to have disappeared off the radar. Probably hiding behind the sofa of one of the vacant second homes in Pembrokeshire. . Meanwhile it looks as if Vaughan Gething our “health minister” has joined him. Woefully out of his depth. He’s not made a single useful contribution to the crisis. Labour’s AMs, with the honourable exception of Alun Davies, appear to be more concerned about not upsetting their bosses (aka Westminster civil servants and London’s Tory… Read more »

j humphrys
j humphrys
3 years ago
Reply to  Dr Dewi Evans

Credit to Plaid for that.! But that’s at local level, where real people control the party? Not Cosycorner bay.

Dr Dewi Evans
Dr Dewi Evans
3 years ago
Reply to  j humphrys

Cosycorner bay eh? So what point are you trying to make? I assume that this means that you would want a Plaid Cymru majority at Cosycorner bay. Would be a bit less cosy I would think. Fancy joining Plaid Mr / Ms H?

Huw Davies
Huw Davies
3 years ago
Reply to  Dr Dewi Evans

I suspect that the humph is as suspicious of Plaid’s crew down at the Bay as you were a few months ago when you had the guts to try toppling the incumbent Chair of the party. A promising party reduced to the occasional flicker of serious activity, spending too much time being party to the passivity that is the norm in that Cynulliad. Nice to see Cyngor Sir Gar doing something right too. That’s been a long time coming given their capacity for shooting themselves in both feet. Let’s be kind and hope they have turned a major corner.

K. K
K. K
3 years ago

What a joke. Why do these people exist? I’m all for scrutiny but this coming from a party whose sole aim to avoid responsibility is beyond. We know what Labour are like – “it is Wales after all – but get up off your own backside and ask what it is you lot are doing. You are part of a cross party team in Wales are you not?

Kerry Davies
Kerry Davies
3 years ago

This is actually fascinating in that Paul Davies and Adam Price were invited to join the government and accepted so Davies is calling for scrutiny into himself and his own work. Hope he has a good mirror.

Jonathan Gammond
Jonathan Gammond
3 years ago

It would be great to see these changes but modern central governments want hold all the levers of power and to take all the credit – the result being centralization in Cardiff and London that often doesnt work and local government and front line health and social care under-resourced.

Our Supporters

All information provided to Nation.Cymru will be handled sensitively and within the boundaries of the Data Protection Act 2018.