Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance – in the Senedd at 1:46 pm on 6 December 2017.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:46, 6 December 2017

I thank Nick Ramsay for that. Well, Llywydd, I believe that the budget we discussed yesterday is aligned with the needs of Welsh businesses in very many ways. It has in it the finance that will be necessary to instigate our new permanent small business rate relief scheme, which provides over £100 million every year directly to support businesses in Wales. Businesses in Wales benefit absolutely directly from all the investments that we make in infrastructure—that's how their customers travel to their businesses. They benefit from everything we do in terms of skills and education—that's how the people they employ get the skills that they need to make businesses successful. They benefit from everything we do in the national health service—that's how people who work in Welsh businesses are able to make sure that they are fit and well to carry out the duties for which they are employed. Our budget supports business in a whole range of ways.

Specifically in relation to the National Procurement Service, as I said in an earlier answer, back in September I announced that I wanted to have a review of the NPS and Value Wales to make sure that it is able to do the job that we want it to do, and key to that is the question that Nick Ramsay has raised. I am very committed to the programme that my predecessor began in this area of making sure that more of the spend that is made though the public purse in Wales ends up being spent with Welsh suppliers and that that money spent with Welsh suppliers then goes on to generate jobs and to safeguard jobs here in Wales.