Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:05 pm on 20 June 2017.
First of all, it’s not a committee, it’s a commission, and it will have the status of such. Perhaps the question should be: ‘Only in Wales, the answer to the problem is to have yet another body’, which is what I believe the Member is in favour of creating. We already have—[Interruption.] I think we already had, at the last count, 47 individual bodies in Wales that had some remit or responsibility for research and innovation. I would suggest that adding another one to those 47 is not what we need. What is really important to me—and I heard your question to the First Minister earlier—is that we don’t create individual fiefdoms, but that we have a systematic approach that means we can have the best of relationships with both the higher education sector and with the world of employment, and we don’t need to choose one or the other.
With regard to the Reid report, I am committed to getting the relationship of Government funding for research right, and to help that, Professor Reid is conducting his report, and his report will be integral to how we take these proposals forward. But I have to say again, Deputy Presiding Officer: when we’ve already got 47 bodies looking at this and Wales is underperforming with regard to innovation and research, simply adding another one isn’t the answer.