3. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on the work of developing a Welsh treasury? OAQ(5)0078)[W]

The Welsh Treasury has established structures to manage effectively our public resources, including our new tax and borrowing powers. In the coming months, I will be announcing the chair of the Welsh Revenue Authority.

Thank you for that response, and, I hope, in the coming months, that you will announce where this is to be located, because the economy Secretary, of course, has said that he is considering Wrexham as a possible location for the development bank. Would you be willing to consider Wrexham as a possible location for the treasury? Because we know that the skilled workforce is there. HMRC is to close their centre there before too very long, so there are skills available—there’s even a building available. It would then be possible, of course, to create a financial hub in the north-east of Wales, which would then underline the fact that you as a Government, as you say, are investing in all parts of Wales.

Well, thank you, of course, for the question. I heard yesterday Sian Gwenllian questioning the First Minister arguing for the authority’s headquarters to be located in Caernarfon. Of course, we’ve received a great many letters from Assembly Members trying to persuade me to establish the headquarters across Wales. I understand the reasons for that. The First Minister yesterday explained the work that is currently under way, and discussions with the unions are also under way about where we can locate the headquarters of the WRA. Now, it’s more than just a location with regard to this debate. As the First Minister said, we’ll have to recruit people with particular skills and expertise in a number of areas, and that will be part of the decision when I can make it.

Cabinet Secretary, the second annual report on implementing Part 2 of the Wales Act 2014 makes it clear that engagement with stakeholders has concentrated mainly on professionals and specialist technical groups to date. So, under these circumstances, can you tell us a little more about what the Welsh Government is doing to promote the Welsh Treasury more broadly to the public in Wales, so that everyone is aware of its role and responsibilities, not just professionals working in the area of taxation?

It’s an important point that the Member makes. As we move to establish the Welsh Revenue Authority, and particularly when we have a chair in place, and a board of individuals to support that chair, one of the important things that I will look to them do is to be the public face of that new authority. It is bound to be an organisation that is of particular interest to those people whose working lives are spent in this area, and the Member is absolutely right to say that the bulk of the discussions that have been held so far have concentrated on that world, and in drawing on their help—both in the way that we have framed the two tax Bills that are currently before the Assembly, but also, for example, in making sure that we have the best possible field of candidates for those very important posts. But as we move on and as we move towards the date when the Welsh Revenue Authority will go live, then it will have a relationship with a far wider population of the public in Wales, and there will be a job of work to do to make sure that communication with that wider public also happens. There will be a communication plan developed alongside the Welsh Revenue Authority. I undertook yesterday in response to the Finance Committee to report termly to the Assembly on how all this is developing, and that will be part of the report that I will make.