Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:52 pm on 27 June 2023.
Rhun ap Iorwerth
Plaid Cymru
1:52,
27 June 2023
Last week, it was nearer breakfast time than teatime by the time I got home from Cardiff after a six-hour rail journey. I don't think I've ever seen Bangor station platform at 3 o'clock in the morning before. But I'm not here to complain about my own journey. It is striking, however, when I and others in this Senedd raise our frustrations about transport, the flood of people raising their own concerns about delays, about cancelled trains, like the couple in their eighties from my Constituency recently who had to stand for two hours without access to the toilet on the train from the north to the south. Does the First Minister think that the current rail service offered by Transport for Wales is acceptable?
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.
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
