<p>Procurement of Public Services</p>

Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:54 pm on 20 September 2016.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 1:54, 20 September 2016

Of course. I know those local authorities, some have been better than others over the years: Carmarthenshire, for example, historically, has been very strong when it comes to procurement, at one point employing seven professionals just in the one county. Other local authorities have not been as proactive in terms of employing procurement specialists. We would expect the public sector in Wales, of course, to procure locally as much as possible and that’s been successful. Welsh contractors, for example, are currently winning 77 per cent of all major construction awards and that’s up from 30 per cent prior to the introduction of the supplier qualification information database approach. Results from the first 259 projects that have taken place that are worth £1.2 billion show that 82 per cent has been reinvested in Wales in the last few years. So, we are seeing a much, much better situation when it comes to procurement, although, of course, we’re willing to look at anything that actually improves the situation further.