Wales election: Issues guide

The Welsh assembly has responsibility for 20 devolved policy fields. These include health, education and transport.

The parties will be outlining their policies and publishing manifestos in the run up to the election on 5 May. Here are some of the priorities of the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru. Read more from BBC Wales Political Editor Betsan Powys.

Election issues 2011

Overview

Conservative

Labour

Liberal Democrats

Plaid Cymru

  • Protect the NHS budget for the next four years and root out waste in health spending.
  • Invest in a major school building programme and give teachers, parents and governors more say by funding schools directly from the Welsh assembly government.
  • Scrap business rates for all small businesses.
  • Eliminate child poverty by 2020 - starting with the most severe cases.
  • Protect free bus passes and free prescriptions for older people.
  • Create an Armed Forces Card, entitling all serving and former personnel to a number of benefits, including free bus travel.
  • More apprenticeships and training opportunities for young people.
  • Access to GP surgeries in the evenings and Saturdays.
  • More funding for schools.
  • An extra 500 police community support officers for safer communities.
  • Double the number of children benefiting from free childcare and health visiting.
  • Free prescriptions - eliminating a cost for people who leave benefits and return to work.
  • Free bus travel for pensioners and disabled people and their carers.
  • Free school breakfasts and school milk for the under sevens.
  • Support for Welsh students so they will not have to pay higher tuition fees.
  • Help for people who have been made redundant - building on the ReAct programme.
  • Cut waiting times by cutting waste. Improve healthcare by switching ineffective spending in the NHS to the frontline.
  • Tackle the spending gap between England and Wales, providing more money for schools by targeting additional money at pupils who need it the most so schools can afford to invest in things such as smaller class sizes or one-on-one teaching.
  • Fund the Air Ambulance to provide a full, seven-day-a-week service.
  • Invest in grassroots sports, particularly in schools. Encourage links between schools and local sports clubs in order to make sure all children who want to partake in sports get the opportunity to do so, and ensure that teacher training builds up the ability of teachers to teach sports and physical literacy.
  • Radically overhaul the energy efficiency of an extra 12,000 homes by doubling the money available for tackling fuel poverty.
  • Offer 5,000 training grants - worth £2,000 each - a year to new businesses that set up in Wales and take on young unemployed people.
  • Scrap the airlink between north and south Wales and prioritise green transport, including rail and bus travel.
  • Root out government waste.
  • Make sure children leaving primary school are able to read, write and count to the expected standard.
  • Help small businesses to grow, create thousands of new jobs and help people get the training and skills for long-term employment.
  • Ensure quick and effective access to doctors and dentists.
  • Connect Wales for the 21st Century with better mobile signal, WiFi and broadband coverage, and a modern transport system to move the nation forward.

Party websites:

Welsh Conservatives

Welsh Labour

Welsh Lib Dems

Plaid Cymru

More on This Story

Welsh election Vote 2011 branding

More Wales politics stories

RSS