1. Will the Minister make a statement on improving public procurement in Wales? OAQ53295

Following the conclusion of a review of the National Procurement Service and Value Wales, we are engaging stakeholders to develop a new approach to procurement, which will seek to further drive up well-being through public spending across all parts of Wales.

Thank you for that answer. Obviously, increasing the level of local spend in the context of public procurement is something that the Welsh Government has talked a lot about over the past two decades, but the stats show that talk is cheap. We continue to receive concerns from local companies who are frustrated at the lack of support in bidding and winning local contracts. Now, Scotland are light years ahead of us in this regard, and we hear of other parts of the UK—Preston, for example—where a concerted attempt has seen an increase in local spend by £200 million over a six-year period. When is the Welsh Government finally going to get to grips with this agenda and start to work effectively with local and regional bodies to properly support Welsh-based companies?

Thank you for raising what is a very important issue, in terms of ensuring that our Wales-based suppliers and our entire Welsh supply chain is able to benefit from in excess of £6 billion every year that we do spend on procurement. It isn't fair to say that this agenda hasn't moved forward, because we now win in Wales 52 per cent of the annual procurement expenditure, and that is up from a baseline of 35 per cent in 2004. So, we are making progress, although, clearly, progress isn't as far-reaching as we would have hoped, which is why the former Minister introduced the review of the National Procurement Service and Value Wales, and decided to make some quite far-reaching changes in terms of how we will develop this agenda even further. 

It was an in-depth examination, which demonstrates that the way forward really has to be through a much smaller unit, which is more focused on a smaller number of things. So, greater focus will be given in future to collaborative procurement agreements that are aligned to those regional and local priorities, which you've talked about, and also I'd like to explore how we can better support our small and medium-sized enterprises to work in collaboration, one with another, as we see in other sectors—the dairy sector in Wales does it very well, for example. So, we can learn from other sectors to see how we can take this agenda forward here in Wales. 

I think you've just confirmed, Minister, that, of course, as a Government, you're still actually looking into the procurement system. But can you reassure us that, once you've made some firm decisions on this, you will actually learn lessons so that small businesses in particular can have the opportunity to actually participate in the procurement system?

Absolutely, and this is one of the reasons why the previous Minister introduced the review in the first place, to ensure that small businesses, of which we have so many in Wales, are able to benefit from the huge investment that we make in the public sector every year in Wales. 

The size of contract decides who is able to bid for it. The smaller the contract, the better the opportunity for smaller, local companies. Bundling up contracts to make one large one only benefits the very large companies. Will the Welsh Government support using smaller public sector contracts to support local economies? This idea that you have one health budget—they purchase all the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Local Health Board food from one place—excludes local firms. 

Again, this is another area where I will be exploring to determine how we can best take forward this agenda to benefit those SMEs we have right across Wales, to ensure, as I said in response to previous questions, that they are able to maximise their take from that important spend that we make and the investment that we make.