Rebecca Evans: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I hadn’t intended to use this debate to educate Members about the 2020-21 consolidated accounts, but I will begin with that, because we’ve had a number of contributions that have just been so factually incorrect it’s very difficult to let them go. So, we’re talking here about the year that was the pandemic year. Obviously, that was an exceptional...
Rebecca Evans: I move.
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much to colleagues for their contributions, and, again, thank you to committees for the work that they've done. We're absolutely committed to facilitating Senedd scrutiny, and, as I think has been recognsed, the scrutiny periods for the memorandum were originally shorter because of the anticipated timing of the conclusion of the Bill's committee stage in Westminster, but the...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you. I move the motions. Over £8 billion is spent on public procurement each year in Wales. Improving the way we procure can drive innovation and resilience and deliver benefits across Wales by supporting our local economy and saving the taxpayer money. Through this Bill, there's an opportunity to simplify the complex procurement landscape that currently exists for buyers and suppliers...
Rebecca Evans: Cardiff University undertook some work with us, which sought to have discussions right across the public sector where the invest-to-save programme had been used, and it's been used right across Wales in a range of ways to understand what the barriers were for the implementation and expansion of those good projects and the learning across Wales so that these kinds of interventions could be...
Rebecca Evans: Since its introduction in 2009, the invest-to-save programme has supported approximately 200 projects with an aggregate value in the region of £200 million. Most recently, it has provided funding for three new projects, helping us to deliver our programme for government commitment in respect of looked-after children.
Rebecca Evans: Welsh Government sees the most important thing that we can do in terms of helping local authorities support their communities through this difficult time as providing as much support as we possibly can through the revenue support grant. Our settlement for 2023-24 is an increase of £227 million to the indicative allocations that were published at the last budget. That, in part, is due to the...
Rebecca Evans: Supporting vital public services through these hard times was a key priority in the 2023-24 budget. I have provided an additional £227 million for local government, including funding for schools and social care, which sits alongside other directly funded cost-of-living support interventions, including £18.8 million for the discretionary assistance fund.
Rebecca Evans: The Welsh Government doesn't intend to introduce any legislation of that sort, because we do believe that capping an authority's budget would be a serious imposition on the responsibilities of those locally elected members. We do provide local authorities, of course, with flexibility when setting their budgets and determining their council tax levels, and that does allow them to respond to...
Rebecca Evans: The responsibility for setting the council's annual budget and, as part of that, decisions about council tax, are matters for each local authority and its elected members.
Rebecca Evans: The request for additional support, for example the additional funding that has gone through Communities for Work, was made to the Minister for Economy. So, I haven't had any particular approaches in terms of additional funding. But I do know that there was a meeting held on 15 March between Anglesey council, the Wales Office, Welsh Government and Amber Holdings who own the site, and that...
Rebecca Evans: I'd just begin by reassuring Rhun ap Iorwerth that the Minister for Economy is working very closely indeed with the council on this issue, and the taskforce also continues to be meeting regularly to establish a way forward and also to understand those wider implications to which the Member has referred. The Minister for Economy has approved additional funding through the Welsh Government's...
Rebecca Evans: The Minister for Economy, working with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, is engaging across Government and working in partnership with Anglesey council through the 2 Sisters taskforce. Our collective focus to date has been on supporting affected workers and the community in Llangefni and beyond.
Rebecca Evans: Well, I will say that successive Welsh Governments have consistently avoided the pitfalls of PFI contracts, and as a result of our approach, liabilities relating to this type of scheme in Wales are much lower than in other parts of the UK. For example, the average cost per head of PFI schemes in Wales is around £40, and that's approximately a fifth of the cost per head across the UK as a...
Rebecca Evans: Well, authorities are continuing to review their contracts to determine value for money, and contracting authorities that are undertaking reviews to renegotiate or to terminate a contract don't need Welsh Government approval to renegotiate or terminate that contract. Welsh Government does, however, review the business case, as we provide some revenue support cost for PFI initiatives. This...
Rebecca Evans: There are now 20 remaining historic private finance initiative contracts in Wales. In 2019, the First Minister instigated a review of PFI contracts, encouraging contracting authorities to renegotiate or terminate PFI contracts where there was a value-for-money case for doing so. This work is ongoing.
Rebecca Evans: These would be matters, really, for the members of the pension board and the pension fund to be considering in terms of the investments that the fund makes. But that said, I think that green pension investments can be very good investments in terms of the way in which the current energy market is moving towards a greener and more sustainable way of delivering energy for the future. I know all...
Rebecca Evans: I absolutely agree that working together to respond to the climate and nature crisis is the only way that we are really, really going to be able to make the improvements that have to be made. The whole pension system really needs to be responding to this agenda. It is true, of course, that local government pension authorities can be learning from each other and from across the public sector...
Rebecca Evans: We are working closely with colleagues. The Wales pension partnership discussed decarbonising local government pensions at the Partnership Council for Wales in November. Following your meeting with the First Minister in January, the WLGA has agreed to run an event in May with leaders and pension providers to discuss the next steps.
Rebecca Evans: I think it's really important that local authorities—and the public sector more widely—takes opportunities to look to attract a much wider and more diverse range of people to work in their sectors. They can do that by, for example, ensuring that the advertisements for roles are appropriately placed in places where people with more diverse characteristics are likely to see them, and also...
