Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:34 pm on 2 May 2017.
Mark Isherwood
Conservative
2:34,
2 May 2017
Can I call for a single statement, a statement from the Cabinet Secretary for health, on vaginal mesh implants? The Minister will be aware that during the Easter recess this matter was covered extensively in the UK and Welsh press, after it was announced that 800 women across the UK were suing the NHS, stating that these had caused them pain and suffering. I was contacted by a constituent in north Wales, who asked me to raise this here in the Senedd with the Welsh Government. She told me that in 2004, at Ysbyty Gwynedd, she had a mesh implant and she’s since suffered badly from left hip pain, left thigh pain, pelvic pain and intimate pain, as one of, as she says, several thousand women across the UK who are suffering from these implants. Media coverage in Wales at the time said that, despite the complications reported, the mesh is still available to women in Wales, and that the Welsh Government had confirmed to WalesOnline that treatment was still available on the Welsh NHS, but that enhanced guidelines were in place. For the sake of my constituent, and, no doubt, many other women across Wales affected by these implants, I hope you will agree that this merits a statement. Thank you.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
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.
