Where responsibility for a service or provision is unclear between the UK Government and the Welsh Government, how can the Minister ensure that a global health insurance card in Wales is provided by NHS Wales and not NHS England, in order to ensure a bilingual card for the citizens of Wales, which is their right?
Responsibility for the provision of Global Health Insurance Cards is not unclear. The Global Health Insurance Card (which replaces the European Health Insurance Card) is the method by which the UK Government enables UK residents to access medically necessary healthcare when visiting EU countries as part of the reciprocal healthcare agreement with the EU under the new Trade and Co-operation Agreement following EU exit and Switzerland under the recently agreed reciprocal healthcare Convention.
International agreements are reserved to the UK Government. Therefore the Welsh Government does not have responsibility for the provision of Global Health Insurance Cards.
Global Health Insurance Cards are administered by the NHS Business Services Authority on behalf of the UK Government for the UK as a whole. The NHS Business Services Authority does not come under the Welsh Language Standards system, nor does it have a Welsh language scheme in place.