'I warned that Mold’s Theatr Clwyd could be in serious danger of closing without Welsh Government construction funding'

MS for North Wales

Ahead of my Short Debate in the Welsh Parliament, ‘Children's Hospices - a Lifeline Fund for Wales’, I had a meeting with the two children's Hospice charities in Wales, Tŷ Gobaith and Tŷ Hafan, to discuss their importance to families and need for sustainable funding.

Speaking in my Debate, I said such funding would give Children’s Hospices confidence to sustain and expand their services to better meet the needs of all children with life limiting conditions and their families, where Children’s Hospices in Scotland receive half their funding from the state, in Northern Ireland 25%, in England 21%, but in Wales less than 10%.

The Welsh Government received £15 million from the UK Government in consequence of increased funding for Hospices in England this financial year. In the Senedd the previous week, I asked the Finance Minister why she has only allocated £9.3 million of this to Hospices in Wales.

Questioning the Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, I warned that Mold’s Theatr Clwyd could be in serious danger of closing without Welsh Government construction funding for its Redevelopment Project.

In First Minister’s Questions, I confirmed that Welsh Conservatives would continue to fund Police Community Support Officer numbers in Wales, alongside the UK Conservative Government programme to recruit additional Police Officers which had already delivered 62 more in North Wales by last December, with further increases to follow in the next two years.

Speaking in the Finance Committee Debate, I noted that the Welsh Government will receive £123 per person in 2021-22 for every £100 per person of equivalent funding in England, and echoed the UK Chief Secretary of the Treasury’s call for this to be used effectively.

Speaking on the ‘Motion to amend Standing Orders’ in order to restrict the creation of new political groups, I described this “as nasty, high-handed and domineering, exercising arbitrary and overbearing control over others”. Labour and Plaid Cymru Members voted to pass it.

Speaking on the extension of temporary Land Transaction Tax relief in Wales, I expressed concern that the approach in Wales will force first-time buyers over the border to save money.

I attended the final meetings this Senedd term of the Senedd Business Committee, and the Cross Party Group on Muscular Dystrophy and Neuromuscular Conditions, was re-elected as the Parliamentary Champion for the Conservative Disability Group in the Senedd at the Group’s AGM, and attended the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Senedd Branch AGM.

Other online engagements included Federation of Small Businesses, Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Scheme and Hanmer Surgery Patient Action Group.

If you need my help, email Mark.Isherwood@senedd.wales or call 0300 200 7219.