Here we are, once again, discussing another committee report that’s been given a very disappointing response from Government, with only six of the 23 recommendations being accepted. The unacceptable use of 'accept in principle' is put into place 15 times in the case of this report. Although it’s eight months since the Welsh Government Permanent Secretary stated in a letter to the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee that the Welsh Government shouldn’t be using this term 'accept in principle', they do it 15 times in this report.

It’s very disappointing that two important recommendations and completely sensible recommendations are rejected—rejected outright, that is. First of all, recommendation 1, namely to

'strongly recommend that a clear tackling poverty strategy is published, which brings together the many strands of poverty reduction work to help provide clear direction and to help the Assembly scrutinise the Government’s approach.'

That was rejected. It's difficult to believe what is then said in the narrative as an explanation for that rejection. This is what they say:

'We can only effectively respond to the long-term challenge of addressing poverty by joining up everything we do.'

Well, exactly. That's exactly why we need a strategy, to draw all of those strands together under one umbrella. That makes full sense, but it is rejected here, unfortunately.

The other recommendation that is rejected is this one: the committee recommends,

'as part of any consideration of the devolution of powers on the administration of Universal Credit, the Welsh Government undertakes and publishes analysis of the benefits and risks.'

The response again is a rejection. What on earth is wrong with carrying out an analysis—to look at the benefits, to look at the risks and to bring a report forward? And if the analysis demonstrates that there are too many risks, then that will strengthen the Government's case, which opposes even considering the devolution of welfare payments or the work of administering those pay payments. And let's be clear, we are talking about the administration of those payments here. To say something like this—this is what the Government has said in response to this:

'As a matter of principle, we should all be entitled to an equal claim from our welfare state.'

Well, of course we should, but to make such a point and to use it as an argument against devolution is a very dangerous argument to make. One of the merits of devolution, for me, is to enable us in Wales to plough our own furrow if we feel that UK policies are not in keeping with our values, as in this case. We are truly talking about a minor change here—the devolution of administration. It's very disappointing that the Government isn't even willing to study the issue, just to look at it and present a paper to us on the benefits and potential risks. I'm pleased to say that the committee will be looking at this issue. We as a committee will be doing a piece of work to look at how the devolution of parts of the administration of the welfare system has worked in Scotland.

I will conclude on a slightly more positive note. Our committee highlighted the importance of disseminating public sector employment across Wales, and the report does recommend that this should happen more, with the focus on disadvantaged areas. It is crucial that we do disseminate employment from the south-east of Wales. As the Government and other public services consider changing the way that they provide services, as they change location, or in creating new locations for services, it is crucially important that they consider this.

The report covers procurement, and many recommendations were made as to how the economic contract could be used to promote the objectives that are shared here. We are also looking forward to seeing the action plan on reducing the gender pay gap, once the fair work board has published its recommendations. We must realise, I think, that low wages are an equality issue as well as being an economic issue.

I am concluding, but I do believe that this is a very useful and comprehensive report. It does demonstrate how the Welsh Government can do far more, if it chose to, and shows how very small changes to policy could make a major difference to those on low wages in Wales.