Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:14 pm on 24 January 2017.
Carwyn Jones
Labour
2:14,
24 January 2017
The Member is probably wise in not repeating those allegations outside of the Chamber, I expect. He has an unhappy history of libel trials, as we know. From our perspective, all we got—it was just a stream of consciousness as far as I can tell. In terms of appointments, they are done openly. He has criticised, for example, the appointment of the ombudsman; the ombudsman was appointed with a Plaid Cymru Member on the board that appointed the ombudsman. The appointments are made by the Assembly, not by Government, in many, many cases. We have had instances where we’ve investigated fraud; that is inevitable, I suppose, whenever you get a large organisation in being, and those investigations are taken forward regardless of who is the subject of those investigations. If he’s suggesting that, somehow, Welsh Government advisers have been involved in fraud, which is the tone of his investigation, then he needs to make his allegations known to the appropriate authorities, or provide evidence to back that up. This is not the current US Government that we’re talking about here; this is 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.