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Welsh Affairs

I was about to move on and cut out part of my speech because of the limited time available and the interventions that I have taken, but let me say that the hon. Gentleman is right about community support officers. I have been out on the beat with them in Wales and they make a tremendous contribution. I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for mentioning that. I am especially worried about the health service, not least because there seems to be an obsession with bureaucracy and targets. The Assembly Government have introduced 252 NHS targets, and I have to ask whether that has improved health care. However, I want to draw attention to a positive matter. Jonathan Morgan, the shadow Minister for Health and Social Services in the Assembly, is moving towards securing the first Back-Bench measure of the Assembly Government. The mental health reform legislative competence order, which will provide specific patient rights in mental health care, has been laid with the Assembly's unanimous approval. I hope that that again shows the Secretary of State that Welsh Conservatives are leading the agenda, when they can, with practical policies for Wales, and I hope that he shares my wish that the measure reaches the statute book soon. The Secretary of State mentioned the economic health of Wales, which is also crucial to its success. Sadly, after 10 years of a Labour Government, I do not perceive matters through the same rose-tinted spectacles as the right hon. Gentleman because Wales remains the poorest area of the United Kingdom. The recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation report showed that no progress had been made on tackling child poverty in recent years. Worklessness and economic inactivity still blight too many communities in Wales. The figures that I mentioned in my intervention on the Secretary of State mean that many of our children still grow up in families where no one has ever worked. The decline in manufacturing has also badly affected the country.