Written Statement: The Welsh Government Annual Report 2024-2025

I am today publishing our fourth and final Programme for Government Annual Report in this Senedd term, setting out the progress we have made towards our well-being objectives. 

Despite the economic challenges caused by global political instability over this Senedd term we have continued to deliver for the people of Wales. 

Some of our key PfG and wider achievements this year include: 

• Establishing a new medical school in North Wales to help tackle the challenges around training and re-training doctors.
• In February 2025, we launched the new Dental Access Portal which marked a big step forward in making NHS dental care fairer and easier to access.
• The reduction of waiting times over 104 weeks; by March 2025 they were 88% lower than their post pandemic peak.
• Delivering a Women’s Health Plan which sets out how our NHS will improve women’s experience of healthcare, their health outcomes and ensure their voices are heard.  
• Becoming the first nation in the UK to legislate to eliminate private profit in children’s residential and foster care, putting children’s wellbeing before profit.
• Supporting over 11,000 jobs across Wales demonstrating our commitment to building a stronger, fairer and greener economy.
• Helping young people find a job or start a business, through our Young Persons Guarantee; since its launch in 2021, over 57,000 young people have participated in employability and skills programmes laying the foundations for a future-proofed Welsh economy.
• Increasing the number of new jobs created through foreign direct investment by 30% compared to last year, through 65 projects which led to 2,470 new jobs. This was the second highest increase of any UK nation or region.
• Investing over £800m in rail means that the majority of TfW journeys are made on new trains.
• Transforming local bus services through our landmark Bus Services (Wales) Bill, which brings buses back under public control and gives us the tools to design a network that puts the needs of communities first.
• Investing in our Strategic Road Network - to deliver at least 100km of improved surfaces, fixing or preventing over 30,000 potholes - and in our Local Authorities – enabling them to deliver a further 600km of improved surfaces while fixing or preventing over 180,000 potholes.
• Acting to protect communities from future risk by introducing the Disused Mine and Quarry Tip (Wales) Bill in December 2024, which paves the way for stronger, clearer regulation.
• Our National Forest for Wales now spans over 130 sites, creating green corridors and habitats across the country and we have made real progress in restoring our peatlands – with the equivalent of 3,000 rugby pitches restored.
• Providing a record £75m funding in the last financial year to boost flood protection for an estimated 17,400 homes.
• Helping learners reach their full potential by continuing the roll out of the Curriculum for Wales and completing the rollout of universal free school meals with over 44 million additional lunches served.
• Publishing our refreshed Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan in November 2024 which reaffirms our commitment to becoming an anti-racist nation by 2030.
• Our Welsh Language and Education (Wales) Bill, passed by the Senedd in May 2025, aims to ensure learners leave compulsory education as confident and independent Welsh speakers.
• Launching new ‘Priorities for Culture’ to support our cultural ambitions and improve opportunities for all, building on achievements including delivering Celf, the national contemporary art gallery for Wales, completing the redevelopment of Theatr Clwyd and progressing our new football museum in Wrexham.
• Delivering nearly 9000 new social homes, bringing back over 580 homes into use that would have otherwise been lost and investing £90 million in loans to help housing associations build and improve homes across Wales.
• Paving the way for the biggest change to Welsh democracy since devolution, the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act received Royal Assent in June 2024. 

Review of Well-being Objectives

We have reviewed the well-being objectives, fulfilling the requirements set out in the Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015, and concluded that the existing objectives continue to provide the strongest framework for delivering against the national well-being goals. 

This year, for the second time we consulted the Social Partnership Council (SPC) on the progress we have made against the objectives and would like to thank the Council for their constructive input. We will ensure that officials feed these views into the review of the well-being objectives which must take place at the start of the next Senedd term.