Digitisation and Public Services

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:36 pm on 22 May 2018.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 1:36, 22 May 2018

Thank you very much. It takes 55 days to start the recruitment of a nurse, after they've handed their notice in, and we're spending some £59 million on agency nurses. NHS Shared Services estimate that, using existing technologies, they can take 30 days off that time, saving some £13 million. There are opportunities like this right across public services to free up resource to deliver front-line services. The Welsh Government has announced a review of automation and digital, and I recently met with Professor Phil Brown, who is leading that, and I must say we are very fortunate to be having him leading that work and the expert panel that's been put together. I think it's a very exciting piece of work, but it's a piece of work that looks primarily at skills, and at labour force issues, not at the whole raft of issues right across the public sector. Both use artificial intelligence but, crucially, existing technologies we have available now that are not being harnessed. So, would the First Minister look into the whole piece and not just the labour market dimensions?