BBC Verify fact-checks claims from Wales Senedd election debate

The leaders of Wales' six big political parties took part in a special BBC debate on Tuesday ahead of the Senedd election. The 90-minute programme saw the politicians make claims on the NHS, immigration and independence among other issues. BBC Verify has examined some of the claims made.

Have NHS waiting lists fallen for nine months in a row?

Defending her government's record on the NHS, Welsh Labour leader Eluned Morgan said waiting lists had come down "for nine months in a row". This is correct. However, the number of waits is still much higher than in the months before the Covid-19 pandemic. The waiting list was 687,958 in February this year, according to the latest official figures. In the months before the pandemic, waiting lists were typically around 463,000. The number of waits is not the same as the number of individual patients, because some people will be waiting for multiple treatments - the latest report says the February waits refer to 543,400 individual patients.

Does the UK government owe Wales money because of HS2 rail?

The Wales Green party leader Anthony Slaughter - whose party is pro-independence - talked about the UK government's funding for Wales, saying: "We don't get money from HS2 - we need that money, that's the money that belongs to Wales."

This claim refers to the call to give Wales money under the so-called "Barnett formula" to reflect the billions of pounds spent on the HS2 high speed rail project. Under the formula, public spending in England triggers money for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. But despite not planning any track in Wales, HS2 is classed as an England and Wales project. The UK government in Westminster says Welsh railways are heavily integrated with railways in England meaning they should be considered as one network. Most rail infrastructure in Wales is the responsibility of the UK government.

When the previous government scrapped the northern leg of HS2 in 2023, it promised to spend £1bn on electrifying the line between Crewe and Holyhead. In February 2026 the UK government announced a £14bn plan to "transform" Welsh railways. It allocated £445m for seven new train stations in Wales, but specific funding for other projects is yet to be announced.

Are a third of children in Wales in poverty?

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said "we know that being in the UK leaves us with a third of our children living in poverty". This is correct. According to the latest Welsh government figures, 31% of children in Wales were living in relative income poverty between April 2022 and April 2024. Relative income poverty is living in a household where the total household income is less than 60% of the median UK household income. Other sources, such as the Bevan Foundation, say there has been no change to child poverty rates in Wales over the past two decades, which have remained around 1 in 3 - a third of all children.

Are there 1,400 people in hospitals in Wales who don't need to be there?

The leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Jane Dodds, said her party wanted to get "1,400 people out of hospital that are there right now and shouldn't be there". According to the latest figures, which were published in March, there were 1,351 people in Welsh hospitals who could not leave because care, support or suitable accommodation was not yet available to them. However, the figure is a snapshot of a day in March - so it doesn't tell us the total number of delays over the whole month. The March figure was lower than February's, but the number of days that people were stuck in hospital slightly increased. In February, the total number of days was 60,601 - 42 per person, compared to 57,512 - or 42.6 per person in March.

Did 1,000 people die in A&Es because they waited more than 12 hours?

The leader of Welsh Conservatives Darren Millar said: "The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has told us very clearly that 1,000 people died last year because they waited 12 hours or more in our emergency departments across the country."

This claim is based on the State of Emergency Medicine in Wales report which estimated that there were at least 965 deaths in Wales associated with waits of 12 or more hours in Emergency Departments (EDs) for patients in 2025. However, these figures do not show the actual number of deaths, but are an estimate based on a 2022 study into the link between long waits in EDs and deaths within 30 days, in the NHS in England. The study suggested there was one extra death for every 82 patients who spent more than six to eight hours in an ED before being transferred to a hospital bed. Additionally, where deaths in hospital have been reviewed as part of an inquest in Wales since the beginning of 2025, coroners do not appear to have raised concerns about extended waiting in EDs. A number of these reports have raised concerns about ambulance response times and handover delays at hospital, but none reviewed by the BBC addressed waits in EDs.

Was taxpayer money spent on solar panels for sport clubs?

Reform's Dan Thomas talked about his party's plans to reform quangos - public bodies which are funded by taxpayers, but not controlled directly by central government - claiming they "are spending our money on the wrong things". He singled out one quango as an example, saying: "Sport Wales spends £5m of taxpayers' money insulating sports clubs and putting solar panels on."

It's true the Welsh government launched a scheme in 2023 that allows sport clubs to apply for up to £25,000 to fund a range of energy-saving improvements. By February 2026, the scheme had cost £5.4m. Reform Wales leader has previously claimed that 200 quangos are costing Wales over £135m. When asked by BBC Verify how the figure was calculated the party told us: "We will release our costings when the other parties also agree to do so."