Conservatives pledge to drive down Welsh NHS waits

A promise to bring down waits for NHS treatment to no more than a year will be among Welsh Conservative pledges at next May's Senedd election.

Reinstating home economics to the curriculum is also being trailed, with Senedd leader Darren Millar saying its 2026 manifesto would be its "boldest and most ambitious" to date.

A public inquiry into north Wales' troubled Betsi Cadwaladr health board, ban on mobile phones in schools and the introduction of a Welsh winter fuel allowance for pensioners is also included in a series of policy announcements to be made.

The two-day conference, in Llangollen, Denbighshire, begins on Friday.

The Conservatives said a school mobile phone ban would be implemented using strict guidance and, potentially, making funding conditional on following it.

There will be a plan to boost staffing at GP surgeries, the party says, and a target to make all GP appointments available within seven working days.

Other pledges include reversing next year's expansion of the Welsh Parliament to 96 members, meaning voters electing 60 members in 2030, as they did in 2021.

Tory Welsh ministers would also return the controversial 20mph default speed limit to 30mph, keeping to 20mph near schools and hospitals, and "deliver an M4 relief road".

Welsh Labour ministers scrapped proposals six years ago, then estimated to cost £1.6bn, for the 14-mile motorway relief road around Newport because of its cost and impact on the environment.

The education policies include automatically excluding pupils bringing knives into schools.

No costings have been provided.

Millar said: "My team and I will present a comprehensive, fully-funded set of policy commitments to fix Wales ahead of the Senedd election.

"The Welsh Conservative 2026 manifesto will be the boldest and most ambitious in our history.

"The Welsh Conservatives are working tirelessly to hold Labour to account, while other parties like Plaid Cymru have routinely propped them up.

"We now stand ready to offer the only credible alternative Welsh government."

Labour has led the Welsh government since powers were transferred from Westminster to Cardiff Bay in 1999, either on its own or in partnership with Plaid Cymru or the Liberal Democrats.

Polls suggest Reform is a serious contender to be the biggest party next May, but in an interview with BBC Wales ahead of the conference Millar predicted it would "melt under any kind of reasonable scrutiny of their policies - when they do bring them forward - because they do not appear to have any".

The pledge that no patient would wait more than 12 months for treatment is ambitious.

According to the latest statistics, in February there were 15,505 cases where somebody had waited more than two years, a reduction of more of more than 26% on the January figure.

The Conservatives have already announced plans to take 1p off the basic rate of income tax through "efficiency measures" in government but "protecting health, schools and farming".

All road projects will be "unfrozen" and no new cycle lanes will be built until "roads are fixed".

Millar will give his main speech to the conference on Saturday, his first to a conference since becoming Tory Senedd leader just over five months ago.

Meanwhile the shadow Welsh Secretary Mims Davies has reiterated calls for a public inquiry into preventable deaths at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

In 2024 it was reported that 27 prevention of future death reports in just over a year were issued to the health board by coroners, more than any other health board received.

Ms Davies called for Westminster to hold the inquiry.

"The UK Labour government is clearly failing in its duty by not holding this crucial inquiry and listening to families and those who have lost loved ones," she said.

Calling her "invisible", she said the Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens "needs to put political allegiance to one side and finally listen and act to deliver for the people of Wales".

"It is imperative the families of the victims of this scandal obtain justice."

The previous Conservative Welsh Secretary David TC Davies had called for an inquiry into preventable deaths at the north Wales board.

In January, Mims Davies urged current Labour Welsh secretary Jo Stevens to "push" the Welsh government to hold an inquiry.

Additional reporting by David Deans