Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:26 pm on 28 June 2023.
Vikki Howells
Labour
2:26,
28 June 2023
Minister, building on your statement yesterday regarding the national immunisation programme for Wales, Public Health Wales published data last year on the take-up of childhood immunisation vaccinations, and that data showed that clear inequality gaps had increased in the Majority of age groups and in the majority of health boards, with children from the most deprived quintile being less likely to be up to date with routine immunisations than those from the least developed quintile. So, Minister, what is Welsh Government doing to monitor this clear inequality, and how is it working with health boards and other partners to put this right and eliminate the gap?
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.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
