Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:40 pm on 19 July 2017.
May I respond briefly to Mark Reckless’s comments, and firstly say that I would agree? Of course we would want the Wales Audit Office and the board to be the gold standard in public accountability and in public governance in Wales, and as a Finance Committee, I can confirm what Mark Reckless said. We appointed three members—non-executive members—of the board through an open recruitment process, and in doing so, in fact one member was reappointed but two new members joined the board, and I’d like to put on record my own thanks to those members who have served the board for four years and have now not been reappointed but have served well. It’s no reflection on them, it’s simply that we have an open process and that we have new ideas and new people able to take up that role, and that means that the board itself is refreshed and reinvigorated. I think it’s particularly important, as we are appointing a new Auditor General for Wales sometime in the next 12 to 14 months, that there is consistency and some continuity with the chair and the leadership of that board, which has been successful to date, which is why the Finance Committee is very content to recommend to the Assembly today that Isobel Garner is reappointed for the three-year period.