Fact-checked: Wales Senedd debate flags NHS waits and HS2 funding
Fact-checked: Wales Senedd debate flags NHS waits and HS2 funding
BBC Verify checks key claims from Wales party leaders in a pre-Election Senedd debate, including NHS waiting lists and HS2 funding.
Six party leaders took part in a 90-minute BBC Wales debate ahead of the Senedd election, tackling health, immigration, independence and other hot topics. The programme gave them space to set out their positions on the issues facing Wales as voters prepare to cast their ballots.
On the NHS, Welsh Labour leader Eluned Morgan claimed waiting lists have fallen for nine months in a row. Verify confirms that the trend line is down, but stresses that the overall scale remains far higher than in the pre-Covid period. In February this year, the waiting list stood at 687,958, while before the pandemic waits were typically around 463,000. It is also important to note that the waiting-list figure is not the same as the number of individual patients, with the latest data showing about 543,400 individual patients.
Turning to funding, the Wales Green Party leader Anthony Slaughter argued that Wales is not getting its fair share of money linked to HS2 through the Barnett formula. The Barnett formula adjusts public spending to reflect population and needs, but HS2 is officially treated as an England and Wales project. The UK government maintains that Welsh railways are closely integrated with the rest of Britain and points to existing funding structures, while Welsh politicians have long pressed for greater allocations tied to the HS2 programme. These points underscore a ongoing debate about funding and devolution that figures prominently in the discussion ahead of the election.
As the debate shifts to health spending and transport, voters will be listening for clear policy commitments. The exchanges highlight how numbers can move in the right direction but still leave long-standing challenges intact, especially in health waiting times and transport funding.
