Written Assembly Questions tabled on 13 September 2017 for answer on 20 September 2017
R - Signifies the Member has declared an interest.
W - Signifies that the question was tabled in Welsh.
(Self-identifying question no. shown in brackets)
Written Questions must be tabled at least five working days before they are to be answered. In practice, Ministers aim to answer within seven/eight days but are not bound to do so. Answers are published in the language in which they are provided, with a translation into English of responses provided in Welsh.
To ask the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure
Janet Finch-Saunders (Aberconwy): Will the Cabinet Secretary explain how the Welsh Government is working through Visit Wales to promote and or encourage people to book accommodation directly with hotels, rather than through third-party businesses online? (WAQ74155)
Answer received on 19 September 2017
The Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure (Ken Skates): Through visitwales.com we provide information on a range of products and accommodation providers in Wales with links to their own business websites for enquiries and bookings.
Suzy Davies (South Wales West): Of the total number of productions that have received Screen Wales funding, will the Cabinet Secretary confirm how many have employed a Pinewood employee as an executive producer, producer, or similar? (WAQ74157)
Answer received on 22 September 2017
Ken Skates: Pinewood Pictures took the role of executive producer on three of the productions funded through the 2015 Wales Screen Fund Notification. We seek to achieve the maximum welsh spend and best value for money on all projects supported via the Wales Screen Fund notification and encourage productions to work closely with Wales Screen for help with accessing crew, locations and supply chain companies.
We seek to achieve the maximum welsh spend and best value for money on all projects supported via the Wales Screen Fund notification and encourage productions to work closely with Wales Screen for help with accessing crew, locations and supply chain companies.
Suzy Davies (South Wales West): Will the Cabinet Secretary confirm what fee, remuneration, or other benefit, Pinewood receives from Welsh Government for administering the Screen Wales Fund and whether this is included in the Screen Wales Fund budget or separate to it? (WAQ74158)
Answer received on 22 September 2017
Ken Skates: Pinewood does not administer the Wales Screen Fund Notification. Pinewood’s role is to bring forward for consideration by the Welsh Government, commercial investments via the Media Investment Budget. In developing the projects to be ready for submission, Pinewood advises the production companies on structuring the deals, for which they receive a fee from their budget and not from any Welsh Government funds.
Suzy Davies (South Wales West): Of the total number of productions that have received Screen Wales funding to date, will the Cabinet Secretary confirm how many of these have had post-production work carried out in Wales and how many have had such work carried out in England? (WAQ74159)
Answer received on 22 September 2017
Ken Skates: I will write to you as soon as possible and a copy of my letter will be published on the Internet.
Andrew RT Davies (South Wales Central): Will the Cabinet Secretary disclose the exact amount of state aid, financial and otherwise, involved in the TNT production of the TV series 'Will'? (WAQ74160)
Answer received on 15 September 2017
Ken Skates: 'Will', a high end drama series based on the early life of William Shakespeare was filmed in Dragon Studios in 2017. The series was broadcast on the TNT channel in the US. It is anticipated that the production will generate £18.9m spend in the local economy in return for a £1.5m investment from the Welsh Government.
Andrew RT Davies (South Wales Central): Does the Cabinet Secretary have any plans to expand, renovate or relocate the Welsh Government's offices in the US, and if so, could the projected costs (e.g. planning, design, construction etc) of this undertaking be provided? (WAQ74161)
Andrew RT Davies (South Wales Central): Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the Welsh Government's representation overseas, specifically outlining costs for the last three years and confirming the number of staff, their respective roles and office locations? (WAQ74162)
Answer received on 22 September 2017
Ken Skates: The overseas offices are responsible for contributing to the Welsh Government's activity in the fields of trade and investment, government relations, tourism, culture and education. They are multifunctional in their role representing Welsh Government interests on the ground, building and maintaining relations, facilitating business meetings and strategic engagement with UK Posts and Welsh societies. The overseas offices provide support to Ministerial visits overseas, delivering a programme of activity to promote Wales as a place to invest, do business, work, study and visit.
Our presence overseas is continually kept under review.
There are currently 15 representations across 7 countries: Belgium; China; India; Ireland; Japan; the United Arab Emirates; and the United States of America.
The total running costs of the Welsh Government's overseas offices for the last 3 years is shown in the table below.
| Overseas Offices – Running Costs (£) | | |
| 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 |
| 525,379.23 | 517,790.24 | 550,463.90 |
The running costs of the overseas offices are published in the State of the Estate Report and can be found here http://gov.wales/about/civilservice/how-we-work/facts-figures/our-buildings/state-of-the-estate-report-2015-2016/?lang=en
There are 32.5 full time equivalent (FTE) Welsh Government overseas posts included in those representations.
| Location | Number of Staff (FTE) |
| Europe | 9 |
| Brussels | |
| China | 5 |
| Beijing | |
| Chongqing | |
| Shanghai | |
| Ireland | 1 |
| Dublin | |
| India | 4 |
| Bangalore | |
| Mumbai | |
| New Delhi | |
| Japan | 3.5 |
| Tokyo | |
| United Arab Emirates | 2 |
| Dubai | |
| USA | 8 |
| Atlanta | |
| Chicago | |
| New York | |
| San Francisco | |
| Washington | |
| TOTAL | 32.5 |
Suzy Davies (South Wales West): Will the Cabinet Secretary set out which businesses Welsh Government has taken action against, as set out in WAQ74111, what this action was in each instance, as well as which businesses Welsh Government has not taken action against and the reasons why? (WAQ74164)
Answer received on 20 September 2017
Ken Skates: I will write to you as soon as possible and a copy of my letter will be published on the Internet.
Mohammad Asghar (South Wales East): What programmes are currently in place to tackle illiteracy among adults in South Wales East? (WAQ74169)
Answer received on 19 September 2017
The Minister for Skills and Science (Julie James): Essential skills provision is an integral part of national and regional employability and skills programmes.
The Welsh Government's Employability Skills Programme (ESP), launched in September 2016, supports unemployed adults to get a job and to stay in work by improving their employability skills. This includes literacy support if required. The programme is aimed at unemployed adults who have a reasonable chance of being ready for employment within six months.
The Welsh Government-funded Adult Community Learning Grant and part-time Further Education provision provides flexible learning opportunities for adults. Priority is given to the provision of Essential Skills (including adult literacy and numeracy), English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and Digital Literacy. These courses are free to learners up to the level of functionality which is the ability to read, write and speak in English or Welsh, and to use mathematics, at a level necessary to function and progress both in work and society.
The Communities for Work (CfW) programme makes a significant contribution to tackling illiteracy among adults. CfW Employment Mentors and Advisers work intensively with participants to identify and overcome barriers preventing them taking up training or employment including low literacy and numeracy. This could include basic skills training, ESOL lessons. CfW is available to individuals aged 16 plus living in Communities First clusters throughout South Wales East excluding Monmouthshire.
A number of programmes funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) support individuals with their literacy skills. These support the European Union's goal of increasing employment by giving unemployed and disadvantaged people the training and support they need to enter jobs. One of the main aims of ESF is to invest in skills as a driver of productivity and growth, to aid progression within employment and to improve the skills mix and diversity of our workforce.
Further, the new Welsh Government Working Wales employability offer will begin delivery in April 2019 and will include enhanced essential skills training for both employed and unemployed people combined with flexible recruitment and in-work support.
Mohammad Asghar (South Wales East): Will the Cabinet Secretary advise the percentage of adults considered to be illiterate in South East Wales in each of the last five years for which figures are available? (WAQ74170)
Answer received on 19 September 2017
Julie James: The National Survey of Adult Skills in Wales, undertaken in 2010, assessed the literacy and numeracy skills of adults. The breakdown for adults surveyed in South East Wales across the national literacy standards is shown below.
Percentage of adults assessed at each literacy level, South East Wales, 2010
| Entry Level | 12 |
| Entry Level 1 or below | 3 |
| Entry Level 2 | 2 |
| Entry Level 3 | 7 |
| Level 1 | 29 |
| Level 2 or above | 60 |
Notes:
Source: National Survey of Adult Skills in Wales, 2010, Welsh Government
Sample = 1,001
South East Wales: Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire, Newport, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Torfaen, Vale of Glamorgan
Further information: http://gov.wales/statistics-and-research/national-survey-adult-skills-wales
To ask the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport
Janet Finch-Saunders (Aberconwy): Will the Cabinet Secretary confirm the total spend for each of the past three financial years for treatment provided to patients in England where it is not available in Wales, for each local health board? (WAQ74151)
Answer received on 19 September 2017
The Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport (Vaughan Gething): The Welsh Government does not hold detailed information on expenditure for the treatment of Welsh patients in England, but this is included in information that is publicly available and provided in the individual local health board accounts that are laid before the Assembly on an annual basis. Note 3.2 of these accounts include local health board’s expenditure for the treatment of their patients with non-Welsh NHS bodies. This can include expenditure with NHS organisations in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but it is predominately relating to expenditure with English NHS organisations.
Janet Finch-Saunders (Aberconwy): Will the Cabinet Secretary confirm the total annual cost across Wales of mobility equipment which is not collected or returned after use, and if this data is not held, explain why and advise as to how this may be analysed and collated appropriately in the future to enable proper scrutiny of public spending? (WAQ74152)
Answer received on 19 September 2017
Vaughan Gething: Details of the cost of mobility equipment which is not collected or returned after use is not held centrally.
NHS mobility equipment is provided by a Community/Joint Equipment Service or by the Welsh Artificial Limb and Appliance Service. Health Boards are responsible for local services within their areas and each health board has an integrated community equipment service in joint partnership with other stakeholders. The Welsh Artificial Limb and Appliance Service is provided by a unique collaboration between three Health Boards and is commissioned via Welsh Health Specialised Service Committee.
Both services have systems in place and would hold data of all the mobility equipment issued and returned in Wales.
Janet Finch-Saunders (Aberconwy): Will the Cabinet Secretary outline how he is working to ensure full and consistent data collection by local authorities and health boards with regards to mobility equipment provided to patients including its collection and re-use, so that the associated costs can be analysed appropriately? (WAQ74153)
Answer received on 19 September 2017
Vaughan Gething: NHS mobility equipment is provided by a Community/Joint Equipment Service or by the Welsh Artificial Limb and Appliance Service. Health Boards are responsible for local services within their areas and each health board has an integrated community equipment service in joint partnership with other stakeholders. The Welsh Artificial Limb and Appliance Service is provided by a unique collaboration between three Health Boards and is commissioned via Welsh Health Specialised Service Committee.
Both services have systems in place and would hold the data of the mobility equipment issued, collected and re-used in Wales.
Janet Finch-Saunders (Aberconwy): Will the Cabinet Secretary confirm the total number of complaints received in each of the last 4 financial years for each local health board? (WAQ74154)
Answer received on 19 September 2017
Vaughan Gething: The following information on the number of concerns per health board has been compiled from health boards' Putting Things Right annual data returns:-
| Health Board | 2013/2014 Total number of concerns | 2014/2015 Total number of concerns | 2015/2016 Total number of concerns | 2016/2017 Total number of concerns |
| Abertawe Bro Morgannwg UHB | 1502 | 1240 | 1291 | 1249 |
| Aneurin Bevan UHB | 1123 | 1115 | 1008 | 992 |
| Betsi Cadwaladr UHB | 1740 | 1824 | 1905 | 1191 |
| Cardiff and Vale UHB | *1901 | *2495 | *2300 | 1142 |
| Cwm Taf UHB | 589 | 614 | 446 | 325 |
| Hwyel Dda UHB | 841 | 760 | 774 | 638 |
| Powys tHB | 121 | 135 | 154 | 324 |
| TOTAL | 7,817 | 8,183 | 7,878 | 5,861 |
*Includes both formal and informal concerns (not recorded separately by Cardiff and Vale until 2016/17.
David Melding (South Wales Central): Does the Welsh Government have plans to introduce waiting time targets for people with eating disorders? (WAQ74163)
Answer received on 13 September 2017
Vaughan Gething: Eating disorders services are important and vital services into which we have recently announced new annual recurrent funding of £500,000. However, these are complex often long-term conditions and depending on the presentation the patient may require physical treatment before they are in a position to undertake any psychological intervention to treat the underlying cause of the problem. Therefore it is not appropriate to set waiting time targets as we would expect any physical needs to be treated in line with current referral to treatment targets. Any psychological interventions would be treated in line with our current specialist CAMHS waiting time target of 28 days for children or our proposed new 26 week target for psychological therapies for adults. Any urgent cases we would expect to be treated as such and to receive immediate care appropriate to the individual's needs.
Dai Lloyd (South Wales West): Will the Cabinet Secretary outline details of the commissioning arrangement between NHS Wales and St. Michaels Hospital in Bristol, for Neonatal care, and outline the costs incurred for this care over the past 4 years? (WAQ74165)
Answer received on 19 September 2017
Vaughan Gething: The Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee is responsible for commissioning neonatal intensive care and high dependency units across Wales. The Health Boards are responsible for commissioning special care units.
St Michaels Hospital provides neonatal care as part of University Hospital Bristol, which is commissioned to provide tertiary cardiac care for babies and children from Wales. The service also provides capacity if there are constraints in South East Wales, particularly if the University Hospital of Wales is full.
Data for 4 years is not available however the following table from the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee demonstrates the costs by year since 2015/16.
The 2015 figures include babies transferred outside of Wales for care due to the temporary closure of the neonatal intensive care unit at the University Hospital of Wales due to infection.
| Level of care | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 (to date) |
| Neonatal Critical Care, High Dependency | 128026 | 30370 | 4343 |
| Neonatal Critical Care, Intensive Care | 276938 | 160843 | 85471 |
| Neonatal Critical Care, Special Care, with External Carer | 4337 | 11160 | |
| Neonatal Critical Care, Special Care, without External Carer | 50677 | 27752 | 1282 |
| Grand Total | £459,978 | £230,125 | £91,096 |
Dai Lloyd (South Wales West): Does the Cabinet Secretary recognise that there is a lack of capacity at Singleton Hospital in terms of neonatal high dependency cots, and at University Hospital of Wales in terms of neonatal intensive care cots, and what action is he planning on taking to address this position? (WAQ74166)
Answer received on 19 September 2017
Vaughan Gething: All Health Boards in South Wales are committed to providing British Association of Perinatal Medicine compliant, excellent standards of care. They continue to work across Health Board boundaries to plan how resources might be redistributed to safely and most cost-effectively support the changes in flows of babies across the neonatal network.
The recommended capacity requirements for Neonatal High Dependency, Intensive Care and Special Care cots across South Wales were agreed as an outcome of the South Wales Plan. The Paediatric, Obstetric and Neonatal Board reports on the progress of this plan to the South Central and East Planning and Delivery Forum.
In support of the above, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University (ABMU)Health Board has submitted a business case for approval to the Welsh Government to develop a Transitional Care Unit at Singleton Hospital, Swansea, which will provide improved Special Care environment and release space to increase the number of high dependency cots to recommended levels. ABMU has also submitted a case to the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee to commission an increased number of high dependency cots at Singleton Hospital.
In relation to the situation at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff although there were some historic issues in terms of resource, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is now at its full commissioned capacity of neonatal intensive care cots and has recruited an additional number of neonatal nurses to increase capacity at the higher levels of care, following on from a business case which was agreed by the Welsh Government.
Dai Lloyd (South Wales West): Further to WAQ73357, will the Cabinet Secretary provide a more detailed breakdown of the number of babies who received neonatal care outside of Wales between 2013 and 2016 (by home Health Board area), and outline further details with regards to the reasons for that care being provided elsewhere? (WAQ74167)
Answer received on 19 September 2017
Vaughan Gething: Information on this subject is available from the All Wales Neonatal Network. Although it is not possible to give detailed information for the period 2013-15, the numbers of babies that received care in England during that period were as follows:
2013 – 96 babies
2014 – 69 babies
2015 – 87 babies
These numbers are from across all Wales and will include commissioned activity with England for babies with cardiac problems in South Wales and small babies and babies with cardiac conditions or those requiring surgery in North Wales.
More detailed information is available for 2016 and this is set out below.
In-utero transfers
97 babies were booked to be delivered in Wales but had part or all of their care in England, including 715 intensive care days, 464 high dependency care days and overall 1500 care days.
Dai Lloyd (South Wales West): Will the Cabinet Secretary outline whether there are any plans to commission a 24-hour Neonatal Transfer service in Wales, as opposed to the current 12-hour provision? (WAQ74168)
Answer to follow.
To ask the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government
Suzy Davies (South Wales West): Will the Cabinet Secretary confirm how much enhanced population funding was provided last year across Wales, including to which groups or organisations this funding was administered, and whether any requirements or expectations were expressed in relation to this provision of funding? (WAQ74156)
Answer to follow.