Election 2021: Wales 'ready to go' alone on social care reform

Reform of the social care system in Wales will be started by the Welsh government if UK-wide changes are not set out next week, a minister has said.

Potential new UK laws will be set out in the Queen's Speech on Tuesday.

Julie James, Labour's local government minister, said Welsh ministers would act if social care reforms were not among the UK government's priorities.

However, she said it would be better "if the UK government reforms the system overall".

In its manifesto for the Senedd election, Welsh Labour said it would "pursue a sustainable UK solution so that care is free for all at the point of need".

"If the Conservative UK government breaks its promise again and fails to bring forward a fully funded scheme within the current UK parliament, we will consult on a potential Wales-only solution to meet our long-term care needs," It added.

• Social care needs urgent transformation, PM told

• Labour carers' pay pledge at campaign launch

• 'Fatigued, exhausted but still going'

First Minister Mark Drakeford, the Welsh Labour leader, was asked by BBC Wales why Cardiff Bay is waiting for ministers in Westminster to act.

"Because we are promised the long-awaited green paper by the latest prime minister. It said it would be with us imminently," he said.

"We have our plan ready to go but...the interface between the benefits system and the social care system is absolutely fundamental here.

"What I'm not prepared to do it commit to spending large sums of money that come to Wales to deal with the responsibilities that we have only to find all that money taken back to the Treasury through the benefits system.

Pressed on how long he was willing to wait for the UK government to act, Mr Drakeford said: "I'm not prepared to give you just an arbitrary month. The prime minister has said we will see it in months."

Welsh Labour won 30 of the 60 seats in the Senedd election in Thursday's election - one more than its last term of office - and is set to go it alone and form a government without help from other parties.

Julie James MS, a minister in the previous Welsh government, told BBC Wales that Welsh ministers would "absolutely" go ahead and act on social care reform if a UK-wide solution is not included in the Queen's Speech.

"We did an enormous amount of work in the last Senedd about what could be done with social care in Wales. We have some plans ready to go," added Ms James.

"It's obviously better if the UK government reforms the system overall but, if not, then yes [the Welsh government will act].

"Social care is a significant part of what we want to do in this next Senedd term."

The Labour manifesto also said the party in power would "build on the work of the Senedd committee on electoral reform...and develop proposals to improve the representation of the people of Wales in their Parliament."

The committee's report recommended the Senedd should have 20 to 30 new politicians and a more proportional electoral system.

Asked if Labour would support those plans, Ms James said: "Yes. We have said that we would like the Senedd to be bigger but we need to do that cautiously, properly.

"We need to get out of the pandemic first. We will be looking to see that we have the very best electoral system in Wales."