Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. And I feel I’m under pressure now, with our esteemed visitors in the gallery.

1. Will the Cabinet Secretary explain how he intends to assess the implementation of the code of practice for ethical employment in supply chains in the Welsh public sector? (OAQ51064)

Well, Dirprwy Lywydd, implementation of the code will be monitored through annual reporting by public bodies. I also expect those reports to be considered by our social partners at the workforce partnership council.

I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that answer. And could I say, as the chair of the cross-party group on universities—and I know I have fellow members here—how welcome was the announcement by the chair of University Wales, Professor Colin Riordan, when he said that, by the end of July 2017, all Welsh universities will have to become signatories to the Welsh Government’s code of practice for ethical employment in supply chains? And he went on to say—and this is the practical implementation—that Universities Wales members are committed to paying the Living Wage Foundation’s living wage to all directly employed higher education staff by 2018-19, and to starting the process of implementing the living wage across their outsourced HE activity. Does he agree with me that we should all as Assembly Members, of all parties, take pride in this part of the devolution dividend, when this Assembly, and this Welsh Government, can force the pace of progressive change in employment?

Well, can I thank the Member for that? I absolutely agree with him that the code is an example of how we have been able to use the powers available to us to break new ground, in ensuring that, in the supply chains that are there in the Welsh public sector, ethical employment is at the heart of the way in which goods and services are procured. Now, the code was only signed off at the workforce partnership council in March of this year, so it was great to see Higher Education Wales very early into the field, in making their commitment to sign up to the code and its consequences. Since then, we know that all police forces in Wales are going to be signatories to the code. We have local authorities in Wales signing up to it, housing associations, there are 20 private sector and third sector organisations already signed up to it, and, of course, the Welsh Government itself is a signatory to the code. And I look forward very much to seeing that code rolled out further, doing the work that we need it to do, and then to be able to report on its impact in supply chains in the Welsh public sector over the months ahead.

The code of practice, of course, sets out actions to tackle illegal and unfair employment practices. And, as Huw Irranca-Davies indicated, paying less than the living wage is unfair employment practice, and we are all aware of allegations made in both the care and the hospitality sectors, because services from those sectors can be procured by public services, of course. Is it possible that the mechanisms you mentioned a little bit earlier can miss picking up those instances where employers say they’re paying the living wage, but may not, in fact, be doing so?

Well, it is very important—I agree with Suzy Davies—that we are alert to those instances where employers try to subvert the minimum wage. We know that there are instances, sadly, in Wales where, through tied accommodation, or tied transport, for example, in effect, people are paid below the statutory minimum. Now, we rely on our trade union colleagues very heavily to be part of that network that alerts us to those instances when they happen.

The document that we published as a Government a couple of weeks ago on fair movement of people sets out a series of actions that we believe the UK Government needs to take to make sure that the rights that people have at that part of a labour market are properly protected, but steps that the Welsh Government intends to take as well, to make sure that, where people are not having their rights properly observed, we have strong mechanisms for identifying those instances, and then pursuing them.