Item 5 on our agenda this afternoon is the Official Statistics (Wales) Order 2017 and I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Finance to move the motion—Mark Drakeford.

Motion NDM6568 Julie James

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales; in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves that the draft The Official Statistics (Wales) Order 2017 is made in accordance with the draft laid in the Table Office on 14 November 2017.

Motion moved.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm pleased to introduce the Official Statistics (Wales) Order 2017.

The power for the Welsh Ministers to make the Order before the Assembly this afternoon is contained in section 6(1)(b) of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. Section 65(7) of that Act makes it clear that the Welsh Ministers may not make the Order without approval by the Assembly. The purpose of the Order is to enable statistics produced or to be produced by the bodies listed to be designated as official statistics. Doing so means these statistics will then become subject to monitoring and reporting by the UK Statistics Authority. 

This Order-making power was first exercised by the Welsh Ministers in 2013 when five bodies were listed. This time, the Order is broader in scope and names an additional 14 bodies ranging across different sectors. Some of them have come into existence since 2013, when the original Order was made. All 14 bodies have agreed to be named in the Order. It is not our expectation, Dirprwy Lywydd, that all the bodies listed will publish official statistics immediately. The Order enables them to publish data as official statistics when they consider it appropriate and they have the robust arrangements in place to do so. 

Official statistics provide a window on our society, inform decision making and enable the public to hold Government to account. This Order ensures greater consistency in the publication of statistics and a demonstration here in Wales of the Office for Statistics Regulation's principles of trustworthiness, quality and value across a wider range of public authorities. I hope the Assembly will support the Order this afternoon.

Thank you. Steffan Lewis.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I would like to start by thanking the Cabinet Secretary, first of all, for allowing me to receive a helpful technical brief on these Orders in the past week.

I only have a few questions this afternoon. Under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, it is a requirement for public health bodies to produce an annual report that shows their progress according to their local well-being plans. Even though the future generations commissioner has been included under this Order, local authorities haven’t been included, but they are responsible for the statistics. So, how is the Government going to ensure that the statistics contained in these reports conform to the standard of being independent and robust, as outlined in this Order? And does the Welsh Government have any plans for the future to ensure that local authorities, which publish these statistics, will also comply with this code of practice with regard to official statistics?

Of course, the other matter of importance is the decision to exit the European Union, and this will have an impact on the statistics available—for example, the health figures, the agriculture figures and those regarding the economy. For example, it is only the European Union that gathers GDP data on the regional level or sub-member state level, and it is important that these figures continue to be gathered following our exit from the EU. But also, given that we will have to design new regional schemes and strategies—and I understand that there will be a statement forthcoming from the Government—there's an opportunity to here for us to look again at the statistics with regard to the regions in Wales to ensure that they do genuinely represent genuine wealth. So, how does the Government intend to ensure that these statistics are available and are gathered and published following our exit from the European Union? And is there an intention to reconsider realigning these statistical regions to ensure that any analysis of data that is made for public policy is done on the basis of meaningful regions?

Finally, Deputy Presiding Officer, I see that health boards aren’t included under this Order either, and yet the Velindre NHS Trust has been included. Now, it is a policy by the majority of parties within the Assembly that all patients the length and breadth of Wales should be able to receive meaningful statistics. Over the past year, figures have shown that the Government has failed to achieve this, but the response of the Government is that the data that is collected by the health boards is insufficient and not good enough, and that health bodies aren’t certain what the definition of, for example, a key worker is, or aren’t gathering the data at all. So, that’s an example of the need to bring all of the health boards under the auspices of this Order in future to ensure that there is statistical consistency the length and breadth of the nation. Do you agree that this will be a way forward, and are you open to including all of the health boards under the Order in future to ensure a high standard of data available for everyone in the nation?

Thank you. I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Finance to reply to that debate. 

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you to Steffan Lewis for those questions. To start with his third question—we have placed the ambulance trust and Velindre trust in the Order because they have pan-Wales responsibilities. The ambulance trust is a national body, and Velindre is responsible for the shared services sector that provides services pan-Wales. So, they prepare figures and data at that level. We haven’t included the health boards because they aren’t operating on the same level. But just to be clear, the Order isn’t the end of the road. It is a step forward. We have included more public bodies within the Order, and, of course, we are open to considering including more in future.

There is one point in relation to Steffan Lewis’s first point on local authorities. In Scotland and in England, they haven’t included local authorities in the kind of system that we are discussing today. We have included, for the first time, the local government data unit, which is responsible for gathering data from local authorities and publishing things at a national level. Therefore, that is a step forward. But we are open to having discussions with local authorities and to keep open the possibility of including them in a future Order.

Finally, Deputy Presiding Officer, if we could just turn to the point on the European Union.

What I can say here is that, of course, this is an issue of more than Welsh significance, and that there is a regular dialogue taking place between the chief statisticians of the devolved administrations and the national statistician to make sure that leaving the European Union doesn't result in a diminution in the ability to provide information from Welsh citizens in the post-Brexit era. There are benefits of harmonisation that are provided by EU statistical frameworks, which all parts of the United Kingdom observe, and this contributes to the usefulness and the transparency of statistics right across the UK. The national statistician and the chief statisticians are very seized of this issue, and the points that Steffan Lewis raised we can make sure are fed into those ongoing discussions. 

So, just to summarise, Dirprwy Lywydd, the points that Steffan Lewis has raised I think are best responded to in this way, but this Order represents a significant step forward in relation to the Order that was in front of the Assembly in 2013. It's not the end of the journey by any means. I know that there are ambitions to continue to develop the way we do things in this area, and further bodies may well be added in the future. I don't think there is a reason for not supporting the Order, as it is in front of the Assembly today, to make sure we capture the advances that it includes, and I hope that Members will be willing to do that.  

Thank you very much. The proposal is to agree the motion. Does any Member object? No. Therefore, the motion is agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36. 

Motion agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.