Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 24 January 2017.
Mark Isherwood
Conservative
1:57,
24 January 2017
Thank you. Well, in 2015, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NICE, published its public health guidance on tackling excess winter deaths, morbidity and the health risks associated with cold homes, outlining a number of recommendations and how health and social care practitioners could reduce the risk of death and ill health associated with Fuel Poverty and therefore the pressures on the Welsh NHS. Given that Age Cymru said last September that fuel poverty is a significant cause of excess winter deaths, how will your Welsh Government respond to the call from the Fuel Poverty Coalition Cymru for these NICE guidelines to be implemented by your Government in Wales?
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
A household is said to be in fuel poverty when its members cannot afford to keep adequately warm at reasonable cost, given their income.
