Wales Welsh Government News

The Conservatives have renewed their attack on the Welsh Government for not following Westminster's example and defining the public's right to report, film and tweet what happens in local council meetings.

This time the criticism has come from a Tory party official after complaints from Cardiff Bay that an earlier letter from the Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles, was 'entirely inappropriate' and showed 'astounding ingnorance'.

The Labour Administration in Wales is openly opposing the right for journalists and bloggers to tweet, film and report meetings. It is obscene that Welsh bloggers are being handcuffed and arrested in Wales for reporting meetings because they don't have the legal rights that English bloggers now have. No amount of bluster can disguise the fact that the Labour Party are the enemies of openness and on the side of town hall tyranny."

• Politics
• Eric Pickles
• Welsh Government

The First Minister says the Welsh Government's working relationship with the UK Government is 'professional, business-like, constructive, numerous, complex and sometimes frustrating.' Carwyn Jones' comments follow further evidence given to the Silk Committee which is looking into further devolution.

The evidence sets out the view from Cardiff on how the two governments work together. It says there are 'many good examples of effective joint working' but complains about UK Government communications.

UK Government communications can be a major issue and there are occasions when the UK Government makes announcements that relate primarily to England, but have significant implications for Wales, without prior consultation.

There's also concern about delays caused to Welsh Government legislation as a result of 'the complexities around the boundaries of the devolution settlement' and a charge that the implications for Wales of changes at a UK level aren't always factored in.

The implications for the devolved administrations of some very significant UK Government reforms are not always factored in to UK Government planning at a sufficiently strategic level and some changes are imposing very significant unfunded costs on the Welsh Government, to the detriment of devolved services.

• Politics
• Welsh Government
• UK Government

A fledgling aerospace firm headed by heavy metal legend Bruce Dickinson has announced a £5m investment.

The Iron Maiden frontman is fast becoming as big a noise in the world of business as he is in the music industry.

He hailed the Welsh Assembly Government today for backing his company's ambitious expansion to the tune of £1.6m.

Cardiff Aviation Limited was set up in July last year and is jointly run by Mr Dickinson and his business partner Mario Fulgoni.

His firm is an aircraft maintenance and flight training group with headquarters within the Welsh Government's St Athan-Cardiff Airport Enterprise Zone.

The investment was announced today at the Paris International Air Show. The rest of the cash will come from private backers.

• Business
• Welsh Government
• Iron Maiden

Responding to claims by Plaid Cymru that ambulance waiting times for emergency calls are not being met the Welsh Government says the proportion of calls which resulted in a response of 20 minutes or longer represents 6.8% of calls received by the Welsh Ambulance Service.

While recent improvements in performance are encouraging, more needs to be done to ensure performance improves in the long term. The Minister for Health and Social Services has accepted a number of recommendations made following the recent review of Welsh Ambulance Services, with focus on delivering a clinical service to ensure patients receive the right response, at the right time and in the right place.

There is wide agreement that the eight minute target should not be seen as the only measure of ambulance performance. While speed is particularly important for some conditions such as cardiac arrest, there is little clinical evidence to suggest other less acute conditions would benefit from a blanket eight minute response. We are currently exploring how ambulance service performance can be measured to better reflect the outcome for the patient, not just the speed of arrival.

• Health
• Welsh Government
• Ambulance

More than 11,000 emergency calls in Wales took ambulances more than 20 minutes to respond to, according to figures obtained by Plaid Cymru.

One Category A call took 7 hours to reach in the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board area while another in Cwm Taf took over four hours figures out today reveal.

Plaid Cymru submitted a Freedom of Information request to find out how many calls were responded to within 10 minutes - eight minutes is the target, 10-20 minutes, 20-30 minutes and more than 30 minutes.

Elin Jones, Plaid's Shadow Health spokesperson, said: "To have more than 11,000 of the most urgent calls taking more than double the target time of eight minutes to respond to is disturbing. These calls can be life and death situations where time is crucial.

Last month The Welsh Government said more needed to be done to raise the performance of ambulance response times. Figures released in May revealed they had missed their target for eleven months in a row.

• Health
• Welsh Government
• Ambulance

Plaid Cymru has welcomed the Welsh Government's move to introduce an independent panel to limit the pay of council chief executives. The move is contained in an amendment tabled by the Local Government minister to the local democracy bill.

All three opposition parties had joined forces to force the u-turn by the Welsh Government by threatening to vote against the bill. Plaid's Simon Thomas confirmed that his party will support the legislation and has confidence that the independent panel will keep salary levels down.

He also dismissed warnings from the Welsh Local Government Association that the move could lead to legal challenges. He said the WLGA had been 'defending the indefensible' and hoped that, after 'an initial flurry of huffing and puffing' it would offer leadership.

• Politics
• Plaid Cymru
• Simon Thomas

First Minister Carwyn Jones has repeated his warning that next month's supplementary budget will include further spending cuts. During his monthly press conference he said 'we cannot exclude in-year budget cuts this year.'

He also said that his cabinet had agreed to protect health, schools, universal benefits and job creation but that ministers are reconsidering everything else the Welsh Government spends money:

• Politics
• Welsh Government
• Carwyn Jones

A new way of booking certain appointments at your local surgery should be available in most parts of Wales by next year, according to the Health Minister Mark Drakeford.

It'll be done using the Internet, although there is some concern that people without computers could be left behind.

Rob Osborne has been looking at the common problems when trying to book an appointment.

• Health
• Welsh Government
• Technology

A spokesperson for the Welsh Local Government Association, which represents local councils, said any attempts to change the way Chief Executives and other senior officers are paid could lead to employment tribunals and put off talented staff taking up key roles in Wales.

In the last analysis the legality of this proposal could be subject to judicial challenge and we would expect local government to be fully consulted and involved in any proposals which may impact on remuneration in the sector. The main question must be, has the National Assembly fully considered the wider implications of this proposal in terms of equal pay and the potential ramifications it might have on all council employees in Wales?

• Politics
• WLGA
• Welsh Government

A compromise agreement has been reached on an amendment on the issue of local government senior officer pay. The amendment will be tabled tomorrow.

• Politics
• Welsh Government
• Local government