Yeesterday the Health Minister issued a statement and a press release announcing that provisional figures show that all NHS organisations have met their financial targets in 2011-12, making a small combined surplus of £0.5million. She said that audited figures to confirm the financial position will be available in June.

She added that in addition to coming in on budget, NHS organisations have also delivered £290 million financial savings in-year. She said that this has been delivered whilst maintaining delivery against clinical performance, such as faster stroke treatment and a reduction in emergency re-admissions to hospital.

However, she went on to contradict herself, claiming that three of the seven Local Health Boards (Aneurin Bevan, Cwm Taf and Powys) have been permitted to bring forward a small percentage of next year’s funding to help meet their targets. The amount brought forward represents only 0.2 per cent of the NHS budget, however that is the equivalent of £12.4 million for the three bodies.

I am absolutely flabbergasted that the Health Minister can call this a ‘remarkable achievement’. What’s remarkable is that the Health Minster thinks that this is an achievement.

Local Health Boards have a statutory obligation to balance their books and break even at the end of the financial year. It is clear, even in the Health Minister’s statement, that three of the seven health boards haven’t met their 2011-2012 financial targets. What they are doing is taking money from their 2012-13 allocation to cover up their financial incompetence from 2011-2012.

This is another way for Welsh Government to hide the debts that are building up in the NHS, debts that could add up over time to potentially dangerous levels. This is fantasy accounting at its best – or worst!

The Health Minister should be embarrassed and ashamed for issuing a statement like this.

The Healthy Eating in Schools (Wales) Measure, introduced by former Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member, Jenny Randerson, was the first piece of legislation to be given Royal Assent under the National Assembly’s new legislative powers in the third Assembly term

The Measure become law on 15th October 2009 and has since been sitting on the government’s legislation shelves for the past 30 months.

What’s the point of the National Assembly passing laws only for the government then to ignore the will of the legislature? This important piece of legislation was intended to ensure that children in schools across Wales ate healthy food and compel schools to teach children what makes a well-balanced diet.

The nutritional content of school meals has been a source of concern for some time. Feeding our children shouldn’t be about putting the easiest and quickest food on their plates, it should be a vital part of feeding their appetite for learning and feeding their ability to learn.

The nutritional content of school meals and children’s general diet has been a source of concern for some time. The last decade has seen a startling increase in childhood obesity with an estimated one in four 11 to 15 year olds overweight or obese. Poor diet choices children make now may lead to higher risks of heart attack, type 2 diabetes and bowel cancer in adulthood.

There is growing concern for people’s diets in the media, with many television programmes encouraging healthy eating. Jenny Randerson’s measure aims to ensure that children understand and learn about food and its affect on their health and place a duty on local authorities to ensure that school meals comply with nutritional regulations.

I am extremely disappointed that the Labour Government had decided to shelve this very important piece of legislation. Either the Labour Government is deliberately ignoring the will of the Welsh legislature or they are too lazy to implement what was passed in the Assembly 30 months ago. Either way, it makes a mockery of their ‘standing up for Wales’ mantra.