Cabinet meeting: 29 January 2024

• Rt. Hon. Mark Drakeford MS (Chair)
• Rebecca Evans MS
• Vaughan Gething MS
• Lesley Griffiths MS
• Jane Hutt MS
• Julie James MS
• Jeremy Miles MS
• Eluned Morgan MS
• Mick Antoniw MS
   
• Hannah Blythyn MS
• Dawn Bowden MS
• Julie Morgan MS
• Lynne Neagle MS
• Lee Waters MS

Officials

• Andrew Goodall, Permanent Secretary
• Des Clifford, Director Office of the First Minister
• Matthew Hall, Head of Cabinet Division
• Toby Mason, Head of Strategic Communications
• Rory Powell, Head of First Minister’s Office
• Jane Runeckles, Special Adviser
• Madeleine Brindley, Special Adviser
• Alex Bevan, Special Adviser
• Daniel Butler, Special Adviser
• Ian Butler, Special Adviser
• Kate Edmunds, Special Adviser
• Sara Faye, Special Adviser
• Sam Hadley, Special Adviser
• David Hooson, Special Adviser
• Clare Jenkins, Special Adviser
• Owen John, Special Adviser
• Phillipa Marsden, Special Adviser
• Tom Woodward, Special Adviser
• Christopher W Morgan, Head of Cabinet Secretariat (minutes)
• Damian Roche, Cabinet Secretariat
• Catrin Sully, Cabinet Office
• Kathryn Hallett, First Minister’s Office
• Helena Bird, Permanent Secretary’s Office
• Nia James, Interim Director of Legal Services
• Tracey Burke, Director General Climate Change & Rural Affairs
• Tim Moss, Chief Operating Officer
• Judith Paget, Director General Health and Social Services
• Andrew Slade, Director General, Economy, Treasury and Constitution
• Reg Kilpatrick, Director Local Government
• Matt Downton, Head of Mental Health and Vulnerable Groups (item 4)

1.1 Cymeradwyodd y Cabinet gofnodion y 22 Ionawr/ Cabinet approved the minutes of 22 January.

Institute for Government

2.1 The First Minister informed Cabinet that he had delivered an in-conversation event on the constitutional journey of devolution at the Institute for Government in London the previous Thursday. The event was well received with 100 people attending in person with a further 500 joining online.

Constitutional Commission

2.2 The First Minister informed Cabinet that he would be making an oral statement to the Senedd the following day to welcome the report from the Constitutional Commission. Cabinet would have an opportunity, after half term, to discuss the Welsh Government’s response to the report.

Tata Steel

2.3 Cabinet noted that the First Minister, along with the Minister for Economy, would be visiting Port Talbot on Thursday to meet the CEO of Tata Steel, TV Narendran.

COVID-19 Inquiry

2.4 Cabinet noted that the COVID-19 Inquiry was continuing to take evidence on Module 2A - Core UK decision-making and political governance in relation to Scotland.

3.1 Cabinet considered the Plenary grid, and that voting time was scheduled for 7pm on Tuesday and around 7.05pm on Wednesday.

4.1 The Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing introduced the paper, which asked Cabinet to agree to consultations on the draft Mental health and Wellbeing Strategy and the draft Suicide and Self Harm Prevention Strategy. The strategies were separate but interconnected. It was proposed that the consultation period for both strategies should be 16 weeks.

4.2 The policy team had undertaken extensive cross-government and stakeholder engagement to develop the draft strategies, with the pre-consultation engagement alone receiving over 260 responses to an online survey.

4.3 The strategies and high-level actions had been developed within the context of the unprecedented financial pressures and aimed to provide direction to services and partners to ensure value-based targeting of resources. They did not set out new funding commitments. These would be underpinned by existing commitments including the Strategic Mental Health Workforce Plan and the new Strategic Programme for Mental Health.

4.4 Importantly, the strategies had a focus on tackling inequalities and in taking a person centred and rights-based approach, while ensuring a value-based targeting of resources.

4.5 Cabinet welcomed the paper and the fact that there would be easy read versions of the strategies and resources to engage children and young people with the consultation.

4.6 Cabinet approved the draft strategies for consultation.

Progress to create a smoke-free generation and tackle youth vaping

5.1 The Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing informed Cabinet that she had recently written to Ministers to outline progress to create a smoke-free generation and tackle youth vaping.

5.2 The UK-wide consultation closed on 6th December and received 27,921 responses, with 1,018 from Wales. It was the intention of the UK government to introduce a Tobacco and Vapes Bill into UK Parliament in early February. The Bill intended to ensure that anyone born on or after 1st January 2009 would never be sold tobacco products. There would also be a number of measures to tackle youth vaping.

5.3 Alongside this, the Minister for Climate Change would be considering legislation to ban the sale of disposable vapes in Wales.

Cabinet Secretariat
January 2024