2. 2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:43 pm on 16 May 2017.

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Photo of Nick Ramsay Nick Ramsay Conservative 2:43, 16 May 2017

Three brief areas, if I may, leader of the house. Firstly, can I support Mark Isherwood’s earlier call for a statement on support given by the Welsh Government for rare diseases in Wales? I think you mentioned vasculitis, an area of concern close to my heart. Many of these sufferers of rarer diseases do often feel left out. It’s natural for large diseases—cancer, heart disease—to get a lion’s share of funding, but over time I think it is important that we do send a signal to sufferers of rare diseases that they are being thought about and policy is being formed around them, too. So, if I can ask for that.

Secondly, I think it’s six months now since the health Cabinet Secretary made a statement—it was either written or oral—to this Chamber on giving the go-ahead for the specialist and critical care centre at Llanfrechfa Grange Hospital in Cwmbran. I think 2022 was the date given for completion for that project. Could we have an update on whether or not that is on course and what the latest is on that, because there are concerns by health officials within health establishments? So, I would be grateful for that.

Finally, I drove along the Heads of the Valleys road near Gilwern on the weekend, and it’s good to see that coming along. That’s a fantastic piece of road, and there are many economic potential benefits around there. I can see the Member for Blaenau Gwent nodding vigorously at that. However, just down the road from the A465, Heads of the Valleys, you’ve got the A40 that links Abergavenny to Raglan and to Monmouth in my Constituency, which is an ageing concrete road surface causing a lot of hassle for commuters and also a lot of hassle for people living in adjacent areas. So, if we’re going to have this fantastic piece of road kit up at the Heads of the Valleys, it doesn’t make any sense to have a poorer piece of road infrastructure feeding into it. So, I wonder if we could have a statement from the Cabinet Secretary for transport on how he intends to build on the development of the Heads of the Valleys and make sure that the surrounding road network is also built up to standard.

Cabinet

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.

constituency

In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent