5. Will the Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government’s business grant application process? OAQ(5)0067(EI)

Yes. Businesses looking to access grant support will need to complete the appropriate application and provide any necessary supporting documentation. This will usually be a business plan and relevant financial information.

Thank you for that answer. Cabinet Secretary, we’ve had a number of high-profile collapses of businesses involving an awful lot of public money, and it’s not just here on your watch or indeed your predecessor’s—she was the one who made a lot of these decisions—but it goes right back to the days of Ieuan Wyn Jones and £2 million for ragworm farms, which we got not one penny back for. I absolutely appreciate that we have to gamble in order to help build the economy, but can you please assure us that you’re going to rigorously implement a process for vetting and doing due diligence on business applications? If you look at what a farmer has to fill in for a small grant, it is, in many cases, far, far, far more information than a business that just seems to need to put in a plan and an outline structure. I do think that, for the sake of public money, and to ensure that the money is in the right place for the right companies, and that they are truly supported, so that we don’t have this cycle of up and down, we need to be more diligent in how we do this.

Well, it is essential that due diligence is taken fully into account as part of the process of determining whether a business should get Welsh Government or taxpayer support, and processes are rigorous. I am looking at ways that we can strengthen that process. I think it’s also important to recognise, though, that in terms of the support we have offered, only 4.9 per cent of the 1,110 companies that received offers of financial assistance from the Welsh Government over the last five years have actually gone into recovery. So, the proportion is actually very small. But, of course, whenever a company does fail, it does make a lot of news. I am, as I say, undertaking work to look at how due diligence can be strengthened, and I will update Members accordingly. In terms of enterprise death rates, again, we have got a good story to tell in Wales. The average proportion of businesses that close is 9.2 per cent, compared to 9.6 per cent in 2014. Of course, during the last few years, we have seen unemployment in Wales reach a record low, and employment in Wales reach a record high. Some businesses will fail for various reasons. We deal, as I say, with hundreds of businesses each year. The economic reality is that some will fail and some will succeed, and not all business proposals go according to plan. What is essential, as the Member has highlighted, is that we carry out all checks thoroughly and rigorously on the businesses and the people leading them, so that we can guarantee that the taxpayer is getting full value for money and that their investment is as risk free as possible.

A lot has been said about questionable grant support through the Welsh Government—the land sales, such as Lisvane, where the public purse lost £39 million. Do you agree that investment in serious fraud prevention in the Assembly through the channels that exist will probably yield a profit for the taxpayer?

Well, it’s for the Wales Audit Office to assess any cases that Members may have concerns about. The examples that the Member has raised are contentious issues, and we would have wished no losses to be incurred by the taxpayer. But the Wales Audit Office carries out a thorough inquiry of projects that it deems to be in the public interest, and I would expect their work to continue. I would very much welcome their work in regard to any project or any decision that is taken on my watch.