NEW rules on how much political candidates and parties can spend during Senedd elections have been announced by the Welsh Government.

Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government, Jayne Bryant MS, issued a written statement on Thursday (Apr 17), confirming that campaign expenditure limits are being revised ahead of the next Senedd election in 2026.

The changes come as Wales prepares to implement a new electoral system, with the existing limits considered no longer suitable due to the move away from multi-member regions and single-seat constituencies.

The proposed limit for individual candidates will be set at £52,500. This figure is recommended by the Electoral Commission and will be formalised in the forthcoming Conduct Order, which will establish the rules for how Senedd elections are run. This same amount will also apply to a party list consisting of just one candidate, ensuring fairness across the board.

For registered political parties, spending limits will be revised under draft regulations that are expected to be introduced in the Senedd during the Summer term. These will fall under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.

Under the proposals, a party list with one candidate will also be capped at £52,500. However, this amount will increase by £3,500 for every additional candidate on the list, up to a maximum of £70,000 for parties with six or more candidates.

The Electoral Commission has given its support in principle to the new limits, although formal consent can only be granted once the full regulations are completed.

Both the Conduct Order and the draft expenditure regulations will be laid before the Senedd alongside explanatory memoranda, detailing how the new limits were established.

Ms Bryant said she welcomed further scrutiny of the proposals when Member

DYFED-POWYS POLICE have confirmed that Isabelle and Daniel, who were reported missing from the Cardigan area, have been found safe and well.

A spokesperson said: “We are pleased to confirm that Isabelle and Daniel have been located. Thank you to everyone who shared our appeal.”

The force had issued a public appeal earlier this week in a bid to locate the pair, prompting widespread concern and support across the community.

THE NUMBER of Welsh NHS patients waiting more than two years for treatment has fallen by 26%, according to data released by the Welsh Government on Thursday, April 17.

However, waiting times for ambulances have increased, while A&E performance continues to be under severe pressure.

The latest NHS statistics for Wales revealed that the NHS treatment waiting list remains at 793,946 pathways. 

 Two-year waits are 15,005 in Wales, compared with only 161 in England. The Labour Health Minister, now First Minister, Eluned Morgan, promised to eliminate these waits by March 2023 and again by March 2024 but failed to meet these targets. The target remains a long way off from being met.

The Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Jeremy Miles, said: “I am very happy to see a significant fall in the longest waits and the overall size of the waiting list falling for the third month in a row.

“This shows what can be achieved when health boards focus on delivering services, including faster treatment and increased NHS capacity, by embracing new ways of working.

“Those efforts have been supported by our £50m additional investment.

“We still have more work to do to reach our ambitious targets, but it is encouraging to see waiting times consistently falling.

“Two-year waits have fallen to their lowest levels since June 2021 and were more than 26% lower compared to the previous month.”

However, the NHS in England has already eliminated two-year waits. At the same time, a significant number of specialisms in Wales, including orthopaedic care, are excluded from the waiting time data.

Jeremy Miles continued: “The number of pathways waiting more than a year for their first outpatient appointment has fallen for a third consecutive month and is nearly 28% lower than the peak in August 2022.

“The number of patient pathways waiting 36 weeks and the average time waiting for treatment were both lower than the previous month.

“Performance improved against the 62-day cancer target in February, increasing to more than 60%, whilst 1,800 people started cancer treatment and 13,000 people were told the good news they did not have cancer.

“A significant improvement was achieved in March in reducing the total number of delayed hospital discharges, with a drop of 114 delays over the previous month. This was the lowest delay figure over the past year and the overall second lowest since reporting began two years ago.”

However, despite the Welsh Government blowing its own trumpet, performance still lags far behind the already poor performance of the Welsh NHS against targets preceding the Covid pandemic.

James Evans MS, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, said: “Labour Ministers will try to claim success today, but these statistics are worse than a mixed bag.

“The reduction in two-year waits is welcome, but the fact that they still exist at all, when they haven’t for so many months in England, coupled with worsening ambulance response times, is a testament to Labour’s failure to meet their targets.

“The Welsh Conservatives want to see improvements across the board and we can only achieve that by removing restrictions to cross-border, cross-community and cross-sector capacity sharing and by, flnally, enacting a long-term workforce plan.”