The BBC Wales Senedd election debate fact-checked

The BBC Wales Senedd election debate fact-checked21 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleBBCThe political leaders made claims on the NHS, immigration and independence, among other issues. 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.HS2Welsh politicians have complained for years about the lack of money for Wales from the High Speed Rail 2 project...