The Welsh Government's New Economic Contract

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General – in the Senedd at 2:52 pm on 14 March 2018.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 2:52, 14 March 2018

Absolutely. The point of the economic contract, as the Cabinet Secretary himself has said on many occasions, is to ensure that the investment that the Welsh Government makes achieves the social purpose that the Government wants to see, and it's central in that sense to the economic action plan. It will require more of businesses, and it will also require changes in behaviour on the part of the Welsh Government in relation to the particular areas that it seeks to encourage around fair work, promotion of health and promoting the reduction of the carbon footprint, for example.

The economic contract, of course, as you say, has legal dimensions to it, and it's at the heart of the economic action plan. I had discussions with the Cabinet Secretary leading up to the economic action plan around this and since in relation to the legal architecture that supports that contract, and the Cabinet Secretary and I have agreed that, once the contract is up and running in a kind of skeleton form, from this financial year forward, I will work with him to look at innovative ways in which the contract could potentially be extended to other areas of Government, as indicated in the plan as well. So, there's potential for that in the time ahead.