8. Will the Minister outline whether or not the Welsh Government provides guidance to local authorities on the procurement of its waste management contracts? OAQ(5)0023(FLG)

I thank the Member for that. The Welsh Government has provided procurement guidance to local authorities for waste management contracts within the municipal waste infrastructure programme. Advice regarding the procurement of waste collection services for local authorities is also available in policy documents such as the municipal sector plan and the collections blueprint.

Cabinet Secretary, the First Minister kindly agreed to look at the issue I raised with him yesterday at FMQs with regard to Bridgend County Borough Council’s decision to prohibit the largest waste management company in Wales, the Potter Group, from bidding for a waste management contract because it doesn’t have an annual turnover of more than £50 million. I understand that this is in line with regulation 58 of the public contract regulations 2015, but I very much hope that you would agree with me that it can’t be right for a regulation to prevent large Welsh companies from bidding for these contracts in Wales. So, given the programme for government commitment to the improvement of procurement policy yesterday, will you also commit to looking at this issue to ensure that large Welsh companies can indeed bid for large public sector contracts in Wales?

Well, thank you, Llywydd. I was in the Chamber yesterday when the Member raised this with the First Minister, and I know that he’s undertaken to write to provide details, and I will certainly undertake to share in any response to the particular circumstances that he outlines. Since the matter was raised yesterday, I have made some very initial enquiries with my officials on this matter. They report to me that they met with the company concerned on 15 September, last week, and although there was a useful discussion there about proposed investments in two small energy-from-waste plants in mid Wales, the issue of the Bridgend contract wasn’t raised at that meeting, and therefore there was nothing pursued about it. But I’ll certainly undertake to follow up his discussion yesterday with the First Minister.