4. Will the Cabinet Secretary outline how the Welsh Government monitors the effectiveness of spend across its budget? (OAQ51058)

I thank the Member for the question. All Ministers draw on a range of evidence to monitor effectiveness of spend. New policies and programmes are subject to the rigorous scrutiny process set out in the Treasury Green Book. I monitor all existing spend across Government according to a monthly cycle.

I’m grateful to the Cabinet Secretary for his answer. Now, it’s been brought to my attention recently that the Welsh Government has invested in certain marine projects off the coast of Pembrokeshire, one of which will be in the ownership of a local authority based in England. Now, some of my constituents are concerned that, if projects in Wales are run by local authorities outside Wales, then we could end up where places like Pembrokeshire and indeed the whole of Wales don’t actually get the benefits from such projects. Now, I raised this issue with your colleague the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs yesterday, but can you tell us how you, as the Cabinet Secretary responsible for finance, are making sure that any grant funding provided to projects across all Government departments will be reinvested in Welsh communities? And can you tell us how your department is monitoring the effectiveness of such projects to make sure that communities here in Wales actually benefit from publicly invested money by the Welsh Government?

Thank you to Paul Davies for the question. He makes an important point. I heard his exchange with Ken Skates yesterday. There is a series of actions that we take as a Welsh Government to try to make sure that the spend that is invested in activity in Wales through the Welsh Government and our partners has the maximum impact on the wider economy. The National Procurement Service, for example, in the years that it has been in existence, has more than doubled the amount of common and repetitive spending that goes to Welsh firms compared to the year before it came into existence. In relation to the specific point that he makes, I intend, through the local government reforms that we are bringing about, to provide local authorities with a general power of competence, which will allow them to do more things than local authorities in Wales are able to do at present, including some commercial activity, which local authorities across our border have been able to become involved in. That has to be done sensitively and carefully, otherwise it leads you into a different sort of difficulty, but, by making sure that our local authorities have the scope to do more than they are able to do at the moment, it will be another way in which we can make sure that the resources they have and we have are invested in ways that continue to show a return for local people in Wales.

There are many budget review techniques that are available to look at budgets. Has the finance Secretary considered introducing zero-based budgeting to functional areas so people have to re-prove the need for some of the expenditure that’s taking place?

Thank you to Mike Hedges for the question. I’m aware, of course, of zero-based budgeting and how it can make sure that budgets are built up again from the base and how every aspect of spend is properly challenged. We did use a form of zero-based budgeting in bringing forward our four-year capital programme this time last year, by looking again at all the different schemes that were in the pipeline and making sure that the ones that we were able to fund were at the top end of our priorities. And my colleague Vaughan Gething has been involved in some zero-based budgeting activities within the national health service. So, Dirprwy Lywydd, we are always interested in using techniques to make sure that we align our spend with our top priorities and zero-based budgeting is one of the potential tools that we will keep under review in trying to do just that.