Blog

For The Record

Factual information on Welsh Government policies

Menai Suspension Bridge

Transport

Claim: The Welsh Government has failed to delegate properly on the Menai Bridge. There’s no real control.

UK Highways A55 DBFO Ltd are a private company who are fully responsible for the operation and maintenance of the A55 between Junction 1 to Junction 11 and the A5 Menai Loop which includes the Menai Suspension Bridge. This has been undertaken as per the contract requirements which would be in line with highway standards of the time. The inspections would lead the required maintenance work on the bridge and this has taken place, hence the Phase 2 refurbishment works being programmed.

The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract was awarded to UK Highways A55 DBFO Ltd in December 1998 which was pre devolution and Welsh Government for a 30 year term which was the first privately financed road in Wales. It is due to expire in 2028, and Welsh Government and North and Mid Wales Trunk Road Agent have increased management of the handover of the asset back to Welsh Government in recent years.

PFI type contracts have been used across the UK to support the design, construction, financing, and operation of various infrastructure projects, including other road projects.

During the contract, Welsh Government have been responsible as the client managing the contract and Welsh Ministers as highway authority. Our North and Mid Wales Trunk Road Agent take the role of the departmental representative to provide support to ensure contract duties are fulfilled.

Roles and responsibilities are fully known between all parties and meetings are held with UK Highways A55 DBFO Ltd regularly on a day-to-day basis and at board levels.

UK Highways A55 DBFO Ltd are fully responsible for the works required to the Menai Suspension Bridge including the costs.

Work is taking place at pace towards a resolution to the closure and developing a traffic management enforcement plan to partially reopen the bridge as soon as practicable and safe to do so.

Sustainable Farming Scheme

Climate Change

Claim: Based on modelling of the Sustainable Farming Scheme, 2000 jobs will be lost on farms in Wales.

The Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) evidence base we have published does not include any references to job losses. 

Modelling does refer to a possible estimated change in the standard labour requirements (hours worked) from the Universal layer. This is not the same as jobs.

The small possible reduction of 3.7% in standard labour requirements assumes every farm in Wales took up the Universal actions in the SFS. However, this is based on likely overestimated impacts on livestock numbers and does not take account of the extra work needed on farm, through things like soil testing, nor the positive impact on labour of the Optional and Collaborative actions.

There is nothing in any reports we have published that says jobs will be lost as a result of the SFS. 

Nation of Sanctuary

Communities

Claim: £55m has been spent on Nation of Sanctuary

This post has been updated following a review of the final income and expenditure for the Nation of Sanctuary budget for 2024-25 to reflect the final end-of-year figures. The budget expenditure for the full financial years from 2019-2025 has been updated from around £54.88m to a total of £63.87m, with £58.22m (91% of total) related to supporting Ukrainian arrivals to Wales, compared to the previously stated £45.5m (83%).

More information can be found here: Written Statement: Nation of Sanctuary expenditure update – 2019-2025 (6 November 2025) | GOV.WALES

Tree planting in Uganda

Climate Change

Claim: Welsh Government spend £4m of taxpayers’ money planting ‘gender equal’ trees in Uganda

Funding for the Mbale tree planting programme over the last 15 years is around £270,000 per annum, (c. 0.001% of our annual budget).

Planting trees helps mitigate climate change for everyone. Planting trees in places near the equator, like Mbale, means they grow four times quicker and capture carbon more efficiently.

The approximate cost per tree over the lifetime of the project has been 15 pence per tree. Funding also helps the community improve agricultural practices and supports jobs for women.

By supporting this Ugandan-led project, Wales is helping some of the very poorest people in the world adapt to climate change and improve their livelihoods. As well as tackling climate change, trees protect local people in the Mount Elgon region from deadly landslides.

Size of Wales has worked with thousands of young people in primary and secondary schools across Wales learn about climate change, become responsible global citizens, and take informed action at a time of growing climate anxiety. They offer bilingual sessions free of charge to schools.

Read more about Jenipher’s Coffi, Deborah Nabulobi and Size of Wales.

Reading skills

Education

Claim: In Wales, 20% of children leave primary school illiterate

This figure is not accurate for making conclusions about education in 2025. The figure combines findings from three Estyn reports which were published in 2011 and 2012 from a small sample of schools inspected in those years.

The claim is therefore out of context and out of date.

‘Illiterate’ is not a term recognised or collected as a data item by the Welsh Government, nor it is used by Estyn in their school inspection reports.

Estyn reports

The Estyn annual report 2011/2012 (section 3) did not refer to children being illiterate. It says: ‘In around four-fifths of schools, key stage 2 pupils use their reading skills appropriately in other areas of the curriculum. However, in one-fifth of schools, too many pupils read at a level below their chronological age and a minority do not make enough progress in learning to read with understanding.’  

Estyn’s annual report 2010/2011 states ‘In a survey that we undertook this year, we found that 20% of pupils enter secondary school with a reading age below nine years and six months, which is generally considered the level of functional literacy, and a further 20% have a reading age that is between six and 18 months below their age’.

Estyn’s 2012 thematic review on literacy (KS3) says: “Around 40% of learners enter secondary schools in Year 7 with reading ages significantly (at least six months) below their chronological age. Around 20% of these learners are not functionally literate, with reading ages of below nine and a half years.”

As a small sample across Wales at that time, this is not the same as 20% of all learners.

Casey Audit

Health and Social Care

Claim: ‘The Casey Audit could not obtain data from the Government of Wales on how many cases of child sexual abuse or exploitation they see in health services’

The Casey Audit team has confirmed that the Welsh Government provided the information they requested.

They have also confirmed that they did not specifically request data on child sexual abuse and exploitation cases seen in health services.

They will be correcting the report.

Student Support for Higher Education

Education

Claim: Welsh Government spends more than £500m on students studying in England and this money could be used for other purposes.

This claim is incorrect and misleading without additional context.

The Welsh government paid £1.17 billion in loans, which are repaid, and grants which are not repaid, for Welsh students (studying both inside and outside Wales) in the 2023/24 academic year.  

Of this, £911m was loaned to students to support their tuition fees and maintenance. The remaining £264m was spent on grants, including maintenance grants to help with living costs, Disabled Students’ Allowance grants and other targeted grants.

The £500m figure for students studying outside of Wales is based on a particular extract from Student Loan Company data and includes expenditure of loans and grants.

Funding for student loans is provided by HM Treasury and cannot be reallocated or spent by Welsh Government for any other purpose.

The highest level of grant support in higher education is given to those students most in need. This means the lowest income households receive the highest levels of grant (and therefore lowest levels of debt). Cutting student grants for students leaving Wales to study would mean cutting overall student maintenance support, potentially limiting these opportunities to attend university outside of Wales only to those who could afford it, and increasing debts for students from lower-income households.

More information can be found here: Student support for higher education (headline data): 2024 (provisional) [HTML] | GOV.WALES 

Seren Programme

Education

Claim: The Seren programme encourages young people to leave Wales and go to study at in universities in England.

The claim is untrue.

Seren does not fund or encourage learners to leave Wales.

Seren supports the most academically able learners, regardless of economic background to aspire, experience and apply to the best higher education course which is right for them, including universities in Wales.

Seren works very closely with Cardiff, Swansea, USW, Aberystwyth and Bangor to support learners by hosting masterclasses, seminars and residentials. 35.2% of Seren learners who started university in 2023 chose to study in Wales. Of those learners who attended the Seren Medics Summer School with Cardiff University in 2023, 82% of them applied to Cardiff University.

Children Missing Education Database

Education

Claim:  The Children Missing Education Database will allow pupil information to be shared with the UK government as part of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

This claim is untrue.

The Children Missing Education (CME) Database is not about elective home education and is not a register. It is also completely separate from the proposed ‘children not in school’ provisions in the UK government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

It will require local health boards to share very limited, non-clinical information about children of compulsory school age, with the child’s home local authority only.

It will only include information about children who are known to their health board but their local authority does not have a record of how or where they are receiving their education. Once the local authority is assured that a child on the CME database is receiving a suitable education, the child’s name will be removed from the database. Information about the database pilot is available here: Children missing education database | GOV.WALES

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Education

Claim: The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill stops parents from home-educating and parents can’t raise concerns

This claim is untrue.

The ‘Children Not in School’ parts of the bill don’t stop parents from home educating, but they do add more oversight. The UK government introduced this bill in December 2024 for England to improve child protection, track children not in school, and enhance children’s social care.

We want some parts of the bill to apply to Wales too, giving equal protection to children in Wales and helping local authorities and partners meet their safeguarding duties.

Before these rules can apply to Wales:

  • A consultation will be held so people can share their views on the proposals.
  • They will need to be approved by the Senedd

The parts of the bill that will apply to Wales include:

  • Children in secure accommodation
  • Extending protection against ill-treatment by care workers to 16/17-year-olds
  • Children not in school

Full details are available at: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill – Parliamentary Bills – UK Parliament

Meal Deals

Health and Social Care

Claim: Welsh Government bans the sale of meal deals

New rules about how and where foods high in fat, salt and sugar can be promoted and displayed in larger shops and online have been passed by the Senedd.

In 2022, the Welsh Government consulted on a suite of healthy food environment measures, which included a proposal to restrict meal deals.

However, meal deals are not within scope of The Food (Promotion and Presentation) (Wales) Regulations 2025, as set out in a more recent consultation in 2024.

Our regulations largely mirror the policy implemented by existing equivalent UK Government regulations, which were brought in under the previous UK Government.

Free Period Products

Communities, Equality

Claim: The Welsh government is restricting supply of free period products to priority groups

This is incorrect. The Welsh Government is not restricting free provision of menstrual products to priority groups.

Every local authority receives funding through our Period Dignity Grant to ensure free and dignified access to menstrual products in their communities, including schools and colleges.

Period Proud Wales Action Plan | GOV.WALES

Refugees in Wales

Across government, Communities

Claim: Schoolchildren are being used to encourage refugees to come to Wales

This claim is untrue.

The video in question was produced by a group of young children to show their school as a welcoming place.

The video was withdrawn in 2023 following extensive online abuse received by the school.

Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan

Communities

Claim: ‘Racist’ dogs banned from the Welsh countryside

There are no plans to ban dogs from the countryside and any suggestion otherwise is inaccurate and a complete misrepresentation of this report which sought to understand what information was already available on the relationship between ethnic minority people and environmental matters and where there were evidence gaps.

It gathered information directly from ethnic minority people in Wales. Comments highlighted by the media are feedback from people asked their views and not Welsh Government proposals. 

The Welsh Government is committed to creating an anti-racist nation by 2030. Our Anti-racist Wales Action Plan is built on the values of anti-racism and calls for zero tolerance of all racial inequality.

An anti-racist Wales | GOV.WALES

The Labour Market

Across government, Economy

Claim: The labour market in Wales is performing worse than the UK

Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that, since the pandemic, although the unemployment rate in Wales has generally remained below the UK rate, Wales has also generally had lower employment and higher economic inactivity than in the UK, with the gap between the two countries for these measures fluctuating over this time.

However, these figures are particularly volatile for Wales and provide an uncertain view of the labour market when viewed in isolation.

The current headline labour market statistics, which look at rates of employment, unemployment and economic inactivity, are classified by ONS themselves as ‘official statistics in development.’

The ONS also confirms that they are facing challenges in maintaining response rates to the LFS, affecting the reliability of its data.

The best way of understanding the performance of the Welsh labour market is to consider longer term trends across a basket of indicators including other data sources such as the Annual Population Survey, HMRC real time information on paid employees, data on workforce jobs, and the claimant count.

Evidence from these data sources suggests that the labour market in Wales has followed similar trends to the UK as a whole since the pandemic.

Further information on the challenges, updates and current badging of the LFS are available in a Chief Statistician’s update on the labour market estimates for Wales.

Road User Charging

Transport

Claim: ‘Welsh Government to devolve powers over pay-per-mile car tax to local councils’

Powers over road user charging already lie with local authorities in Wales. The Welsh Government has no plans to introduce user charging on the roads it is responsible for and there has been no change to the policy.

More information: Eich cyf (senedd.wales)

NHS Waiting Times

Health and Social Care

Claim: ‘Patients’ and ‘pathways’ are the same thing when addressing NHS waiting lists

Each month, the Welsh Government publishes the latest statistics on NHS activity and performance, with data provided by Digital Health and Care Wales and the Welsh Ambulance Service Trust.

The data typically counts the number of times an NHS service is used. It is a common misconception that this is a count of the number of patients who used the service.

A patient pathway opens when the hospital receives a referral from GPs or other healthcare professionals. The patient’s waiting time starts at this point. Patients with complex needs may have referrals for multiple types of treatments so may have more than one pathway opened. 

While it may seem that terms like ‘patient pathways’ and ‘patients’ are interchangeable, the key difference is that the same patient might use NHS services many times. A single patient is only counted once in a patient measure but may be counted many times in a patient pathway measure.

This means that the number of patients waiting for NHS services is always lower than the number of patient pathways that are open. Using measures like patient pathways therefore allows us to measure the full scale of NHS activity in a way that counting “patients” only wouldn’t.

More information can be found at: Chief statistician’s update: explaining NHS activity and performance statistics | Digital and Data Blog (gov.wales)

Income Tax

Finance

Claim: ‘Welsh Government plans to increase income tax in Wales‘

The Welsh Government has no plans to increase rates of income tax.

During an appearance at Finance Committee on Wednesday 25th September 2024, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance made it absolutely clear that – whilst all devolved taxes are considered as part of the annual budget process – with many people still struggling with the cost-of-living, raising income tax is not something that will be recommended.

20mph Speed Limits

Transport

Claim: ‘There is no evidence that the 20mph speed limit has reduced casualties‘

The Welsh Government publishes quarterly road collision data on 20mph and 30mph roads. This data includes information on which police force area collisions occurred in, available through the interactive dashboard for each release: Police recorded road collisions: interactive dashboard | GOV.WALES.

The latest quarterly figures show that in January to March 2024, road casualties on 20mph and 30mph roads (combined) were 19% lower than in the previous quarter (463) and 26% lower than in the same quarter in 2023 (510). This number has generally been declining over the last decade but is the lowest figure recorded in Wales outside the COVID-19 period.

Transport for Wales’s Default 20mph Speed Limit on Restricted Roads report shows that average speeds on main roads dropped an average of 4mph – from 28.9mph to 24.6.

The principal objective of the policy has always been to reduce casualties and help people feel safer in their communities. We will continue to monitor the long term trend but things are heading in the right direction.

Basic Income Pilot

Communities

Claim: ‘Wales is giving £1,600 a month to illegal migrants‘

The Welsh Government’s Basic Income for Care Leavers pilot was designed to support children in Wales when leaving care at 18 years old. The aim of the pilot was to provide this group with the best possible start in life. The programme had very specific eligibility criteria. 

The pilot was open from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, for those turning 18 during this period and having been in local authority care for at least 13 weeks between ages 14 and 18. This includes young people living outside Wales who are supported by local authorities in Wales.

Participants receive £1280 per month (£1600, pre-tax) for a duration of 24 months from the month after their 18th birthday.

As of July 31, 2024, 644 individuals benefited from the basic income payment, including 74 current or former unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children. They are not ‘illegal migrants’ but children who arrived in Wales without parents or guardians and were looked after in the care system.

More information can be found at: Basic income pilot for care leavers | GOV.WALES