Part of 3. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 2:49 pm on 19 July 2017.
I’m always open to considering whether our accountability framework is in place as it should be, but this should work by the proper challenge of the board itself—those independent members, the non-exec members. And that’s part of the challenge here in understanding what information was provided, how information was not provided to the board, and I think the honest truth is that the people responsible for the choices in this particular report, as has been revealed by the Wales Audit Office’s report, which is an unusual step—. It is unusual for a report to be provide all of that and I do not think the auditor general has provided a report like this before about NHS Wales. It’s a bit more common in England, where procurement is a different beast. The challenge here is to make sure that we are clear about our expectations, clear about the accountability that must flow where people do get this wrong, and that that is proper accountability. I think, actually, the health board now—and I was encouraged by the response from the new chief executive, who, again, made clear that what had happened was not acceptable and won’t be defended, and it’s important that there is confidence amongst the staff and the public about the processes in place today, and the expectation of behaviour today as well.