Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:36 pm on 14 February 2017.
Can I thank the Member for his questions? I will need to check the details of the final question that the Member has raised, and I’ll write, not only to the Member, but to every Member in the Chamber.
With regard to the WIDAB, that was a sponsored body that’s had statutory status since 1975, or, rather, under the Welsh Development Agency Act of 1975. And, as the Member is aware, it considers decisions where a grant is sought that is in excess of £1 million. There has been a review of the threshold level. That was conducted, indeed, by my predecessor, and that was in January 2013. I think it’s timely for us to review that again, as the Member has suggested, and I’m happy to do so. Consequently, because there was the £1 million threshold, it was not presented with any of the Kancoat cases, as they were not within the remit of the board.
But I do have to say again that my predecessor strengthened procedures. Indeed, she inherited a department where there was no investment panel to consider carefully, as a pause and reflect mechanism. Before my predecessor took charge of the economic portfolio, decisions were largely made by the Ministers, on the basis of advice from officials, without that important pause and reflect mechanism that my predecessor introduced.