Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:48 pm on 17 July 2018.
Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, the outgoing Auditor General for Wales has been highly critical of the Welsh public sector's inability to adapt to reduced budgets. In evidence to the Public Accounts Committee, Huw Vaughan Thomas said that public services could be reforming for the better, but their only response to austerity has been cutting costs. He also said that he was frustrated that devolution hasn't led to a fundamental rethink on how we deliver public services in Wales. The reality is that, regardless of who is in power in Westminster, we will not see massive increases in public spending because the UK is now nearly £2 trillion in debt, which equates to around 85 per cent of GDP. We can't borrow our way out of this mess, so we have to spend smarter. So, First Minister, do you agree with the outgoing auditor general that we need a radical rethink for public services?