Mike Hedges AM welcomes “great news” on GP training

Mike Hedges AM welcomes “great news” on GP training

Local Assembly Member Mike Hedges has welcomed news that all GP training places in Wales have been filled.

The Wales Deanery has confirmed the appointment of 144 GP training places, surpassing the 136 places available. This compares to 121 places that were filled in 2016 – an increase of 19%.

The excellent news follows the launch of an international and UK-wide Welsh Labour Government campaign to promote Wales as an excellent place for doctors - including GPs - to train, work and live.

The campaign includes two financial incentives schemes: a targeted scheme offering a £20,000 incentive to GP trainees taking up posts in specified areas with a trend of low fill rates, and a universal scheme offering a one off payment for all GP trainees to cover the cost of one sitting of their final examinations

The campaign was recently extended to encourage other healthcare professionals to come and train in Wales.

Mike Hedges AM said: “This is great news for Wales and the Welsh NHS.  It shows that the Train Work Live campaign has been a huge success.”

“Trainee doctors are seeing the benefits of training in Wales and voting with their feet.”

“The decision to extend the campaign is clearly the right one and I look forward to more positive results in the future.”

Mike Hedges AM welcomes new powers for dealing with fly tipping offenders

Councils in Wales are now able to issue fines for fly-tipping incidents.

Mike Hedges AM said… I greatly welcome these new powers for local authorities – people with waste to dispose of will now be under much greater pressure to comply with the law and dispose of their waste appropriately. I hope that Local authorities use these powers to make examples of people to show others that they face fines etc. if they do not dispose of their waste appropriately. If people have knowledge of people fly tipping I would urge them to report matters to the authorities so that action can be taken and fines imposed.

Last week, the National Assembly for Wales approved the Unauthorised Deposit of Waste (Fixed Penalties) (Wales) Regulations 2017 (external link). It followed a public consultation, earlier this year, which revealed overwhelming support in favour of the new powers.

Local Authorities are now able to set a fixed penalty amount between £150 and £400, with a default of £200 where no amount is specified. A reduction for early payment can be made available and Local Authorities can retain the receipts to help contribute to the costs of dealing with fly-tipping. The Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) can be applied on both publicly and privately owned land.

The Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths said:

“Fly-tipping blights our communities and it damages our environment.  

“These powers will provide Local Authorities with an additional enforcement tool for small-scale fly-tipping offences where a prosecution is considered disproportionate. 

“I am sure Local Authorities and communities will welcome these new powers.  However, I feel it is important Local Authorities accompany these new powers with the  appropriate level of public engagement, awareness raising and wider education programmes. I believe this is essential to ensure a positive response from the public and a sustainable reduction in offending behaviour”.

Mike Hedges AM welcomes New organ donation campaign which highlights a family’s role in the process

The Welsh Labour Government has launched a major new campaign focusing on the role of families in the organ donation process.

Mike Hedges AM said… I welcome this campaign which builds on the success of the policy of having to presumed not to have any objection to being involved in transplants. I have met many people who have benefited from this policy and it really is a life changing policy which has benefited so many people. I would urge families to discuss this issue so that loved ones are aware of people’s wishes in the event of their death. Hard though these conversations may be, they would have real life changing consequences for people on the transplant list.

The hard-hitting advertisement shows an individual’s choice to donate his organs being over-ridden by family members, because he didn’t talk to them about his decision or his registration on the organ donor register to become a donor.

In 2016-17 data published by NHS Blood and Transplant showed there were 21 cases in Wales where families either overrode their relatives’ decisions to donate organs, or didn’t support the deemed consent.

With an average of 3.1 organs retrieved per donor in Wales in 2016-17, this could have resulted in as many as 65 additional transplants.

On 1 December 2015, Wales was the first country in the UK to move to a soft opt-out system of consent to organ donation. This means that if a person has not registered a decision to become an organ donor (opted in) or a decision not to become an organ donor (opted out), they will be considered as having no objection to being an organ donor – this is known as deemed consent. However, if individuals don’t tell their family of their decision to donate, the family may not honour that decision and over-ride the organ donor registration or not support deemed consent.

You can see the campaign here

Press release on new powers for dealing with Fly tippers

Mike Hedges AM welcomes new powers for dealing with  fly tipping offenders

Councils in Wales are now able to issue fines for fly-tipping incidents.

Mike Hedges AM said… I greatly welcome these new powers for local authorities – people with waste to dispose of will now be under much greater pressure to comply with the law and dispose of their waste appropriately. I hope that Local authorities use these powers to make examples of people to show others that they face fines etc. if they do not dispose of their waste appropriately. If people have knowledge of people fly tipping I would urge them to report matters to the authorities so that action can be taken and fines imposed.

Last week, the National Assembly for Wales approved the Unauthorised Deposit of Waste (Fixed Penalties) (Wales) Regulations 2017 (external link). It followed a public consultation, earlier this year, which revealed overwhelming support in favour of the new powers.

Local Authorities are now able to set a fixed penalty amount between £150 and £400, with a default of £200 where no amount is specified. A reduction for early payment can be made available and Local Authorities can retain the receipts to help contribute to the costs of dealing with fly-tipping. The Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) can be applied on both publicly and privately owned land.

The Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths said:

“Fly-tipping blights our communities and it damages our environment.  

“These powers will provide Local Authorities with an additional enforcement tool for small-scale fly-tipping offences where a prosecution is considered disproportionate. 

“I am sure Local Authorities and communities will welcome these new powers.  However, I feel it is important Local Authorities accompany these new powers with the  appropriate level of public engagement, awareness raising and wider education programmes. I believe this is essential to ensure a positive response from the public and a sustainable reduction in offending behaviour”.

ippers

Question to Jane Hutt 10 October 2017

2. Business Statement and Announcement

Mike HedgesBiography

The leader of the house is well aware of my interest in invest-to-save. In fact, she’s probably been missing my questions over the last 18 months or so. I would like to ask for a Government statement on the success of innovate-to-save, and how successful innovations are being promoted across Welsh Government and throughout the Welsh public sector.

14:24

Jane HuttBiography

Yes, Mike Hedges, I do miss the many questions I had on invest-to-save, now progressing to the innovate-to-save fund, but I’m glad to have the opportunity to respond this afternoon. In fact, the innovate-to-save fund is currently supporting eight projects through the research and development phase of the initiative, and this stage is aimed to test and refine ideas so that we can assess the suitability of each project for financial support.

10 October 2017 Questions to First Minister

10 October 2017

Questions to First Minister

The Advanced Manufacturing Sector

14:05

Mike HedgesBiography

5. Will the First Minister make a statement on the advanced manufacturing sector in Wales? (OAQ51139)

14:05

Carwyn JonesBiographyThe First Minister

Yes. The advanced manufacturing sector is vital to a growing and prosperous Welsh economy. I have a touch of the Theresa May lurgy this afternoon, I see. There’s nothing behind me that’ll fall off though, I trust. [Laughter.] The sector is typified by highly skilled, highly paid jobs and above average productivity, and we continue to support companies in the sector in Wales to sustain their current operations and exploit growth opportunities.

14:06

Mike HedgesBiography

Can I thank the First Minister for that response? I agree entirely that promoting advanced manufacturing is going to be incredibly important to the Welsh economy, and areas such as robotics and graphene can help grow the Welsh economy. Does the First Minister agree that there needs to be a further clarification of the definition of advanced manufacturing by the Welsh Government, to exclude things like 1970s technology for colour coating steel from being considered advanced manufacturing, despite the fact that both Bryngwyn and Tafarnaubach had closed previously?

14:06

Carwyn JonesBiographyThe First Minister

Well, colour coating steel is advanced manufacturing. If you look at Shotton, for example, it’s highly technical. Photovoltaic cells are involved in the production there. It’s not an easy definition to make, but from our perspective, we know the sector is defined by a range of standard industrial classification codes published by the Office for National Statistics. Those codes were agreed by the private-sector-led industry panel, which was established to advise both Ministers and officials, and the treatment and coating of metals, including colouring, is an activity included in the range of SIC codes that defines our advanced materials and manufacturing sector. So, it’s a definition that is based on consultation with industry according to a set series of codes.

Press release on Tourism Figures

Mike Hedges AM welcomes huge increase in visitor spending in Wales

Latest figures reveal that Wales continues to be a popular choice for day trippers during the peak summer months.

Mike said… ‘This is really good news for the Welsh Economy and the local Swansea Economy. Tourism is a vital component of the Local economy that it is vital that we nurture and promote it at every opportunity. I look forward to these figures improving in the years ahead.’

In the 12 months ending July 2017, there were 102 million tourism day visits to Wales, with an associated spend of £4,874 million. The number of visits has increased 11% compared to the 12 months ending July 2016, while the amount spent has increased 51%.
Wales' performance is particularly strong in the GB context: for GB as a whole, the number of visits has decreased by 1% compared to the 12 months ending July 2016, while the amount spent has increased 5%.