Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 5 February 2019.
Llywydd, I'm not familiar with the report, but I'd certainly be keen to study it, and I'm grateful to the Member for drawing it to my attention. He's right, of course: we know that winning contracts for small organisations can be a struggle. It's why the Welsh Government has worked with the Centre for Local Economic Strategies to find ways in which small organisations, whether they be small and medium-sized enterprises or whether they be third sector organisations, can come together to collaborate on bids, to create consortiums, to form joint ventures, and in that way improve their chances of getting work through the public procurement process. The Member will be encouraged, I'm sure, to know that 58 per cent of businesses that came through the Sell2Wales website over the last 12 months have gone to Welsh SMEs, and that's a significantly higher percentage than, let us say, three years ago. But if there are interesting and new ideas in the report, then I'd be very keen to study it, and I'm grateful to him for drawing it to my attention.