National Assembly for Wales

Through the NHS Wales planning framework, I have made it clear I expect to see improved productivity and efficiency within secondary care for 2025/26. The Government’s response to the ministerial advisory group report on productivity and performance also sets out how I intend to monitor and publish progress.

Health boards in Wales are responsible for ensuring the provision of safe and timely access to good-quality clinical services for their local population. The Welsh Government continues to support the health board to make improvements in waiting times, with additional finance, direct intervention and support from the NHS executive.

Since 2020 we have increased our anaesthetics training programme by 10 posts at core level and 15 posts at the higher level. Additionally, we have also increased posts in the acute care common stem emergency medicine theme by 13 posts, which includes an anaesthetics component.

We support construction sector workers through numerous funded programmes. Investment includes funding 7,310 construction apprenticeships since 2021, introducing a bespoke training fund to support the use of innovative timber components within the building industry, and removing the wage cap that enables more people to access green personal learning account qualifications.

To address the climate crisis and reach our net-zero targets we need a range of renewable technologies to meet future energy needs. We will require more energy storage to ensure grid stability and energy efficiency. National and local planning policies provide the framework for consenting battery storage schemes.