Questions now from the party leaders. Leader of the opposition, Paul Davies.

Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, do you think that the Welsh Government's public procurement regime is fit for purpose?

Well, as the Member knows, the public procurement regime is undergoing review and reform. I published a written statement on this matter in September of last year, which set out the way in which public procurement is to be organised in the future, and work continues to deliver on the prospectus we set out there.

Well, it's quite clear, First Minister, that your National Procurement Service has of course been a complete and utter failure, failing to achieve its targets and costing the taxpayer when it should be saving money—all of this with a complete lack of competency and direction from your Government. Now, don't take my work for it: a Wales Audit Office report in November 2017 found that, instead of processing more than £1 billion a year for bulk-buy items, only £150 million was spent through public bodies in 2015-16, and, from 2015 to 2017, NPS has made annual losses of £2 million. The NPS has not been able to repay a £5.9 million Welsh Government loan, and Government reserves are now continuing to meet the shortfall until the end of this financial year. Finally, the audit office also found that only a third of public bodies that took part in a survey were satisfied with that service. First Minister, why did that the National Procurement Service fail so badly?

Well, Llywydd, I referred to my written statement of September last year, but I hadn't expected the Member to read it out, because absolutely everything that he has said was apparent in that statement then, and answers his first question. We are reforming the National Procurement Service in Wales. I don't accept what he said in his first sentence in his second question, because actually the National Procurement Service will deliver a higher level of saving for public procurement in Wales in the last financial year—in the current financial year, rather—than at any other time in its history. But it does need reform. Times have moved on since it was first created. The rulebook for procurement will be changing as we leave the European Union, and my statement in September set out the way in which the National Procurement Service will continue to have a slimmed-down portfolio of services that it provides to purchasers in Wales. We will do more at the regional and local level. We will rely on the Crown Commercial Service for a small number of procurement initiatives where we think that that provides better value for Wales. We will learn from the experience that we have had, and we will design a service that meets the needs of those who use it. That's all already part of Government policy. I'm not completely certain what the Member thinks he's added to that in his questions so far this afternoon.

Well, what I've added is clearly that your Government has failed, because the NPS has been an utter failure. The audit office has made that absolutely clear, because, when the NPS was set up, we were told that it would save taxpayers money and make it easier for small businesses to procure contracts. Instead, it has cost taxpayers money and failed to support businesses. So, will you therefore today take the opportunity to apologise to the people of Wales for its failure, and can you outline specifically now what changes have been made, the impact on regional and local working, or, once again, is this just a case of your Government dithering and kicking another decision into the long grass, just like the M4 relief road?

Well, it's a dreary old trope that the Member offers us week after week. I can assure Members that the review of the National Procurement Service has been led by the people who use that service. That's what we wanted to make sure—that the service that is provided is one that the people who rely on it find most useful to them. We continue to work alongside them, we continue to reform the NPS so that we move some of its capacity to that regional and local level. We do that precisely in order to make sure that local economies are able to take advantage of the power of public procurement as we move to a situation in which it is not the cheapest price, but it is the greatest value in the round for public expenditure that we get from the £6 billion-worth of public expenditure that is carried out in this way across Wales each year.

Plaid Cymru leader, Adam Price.

Thank you, Llywydd. First Minister, last week you told me in this place that it was your Government’s policy in terms of Welsh in the workplace to urge public bodies to do more to promote the Welsh language. However, the opposite seems to have happened in the case of the national library, where it’s become apparent that the Minister for culture has opposed making the Welsh language a requirement for the post of national librarian, contrary to your own Government’s policy. E-mails between the Welsh Government and the national library about internal communications between the Minister and his officials confirm that the Government had tried to make a deal in terms of the national broadcast archive to bring pressure to bear on the library authorities not to make the Welsh language a requirement for the post. This is a quote from a record of a telephone conversation between the department for culture and the library, where the library was told:

'if they do proceed, it could make things much more difficult in terms of other National Library issues on which they are hoping to secure our support (e.g. the Broadcast Archive).'

A month later to the very date of that e-mail, we know that this investment for that very broadcast archive was in the balance. First Minister, do you agree that the slightest suggestion of using inappropriate influence by Ministers is entirely unacceptable, and will you therefore give us an assurance that an inquiry will be held to consider whether the Deputy Minister for culture and his department have operated contrary to the ministerial code and the Nolan principles in this regard?

Well, I don't agree with what the Member said, Llywydd, at all. Instead of relying on random notes of telephone conversations, let's look to see what actually happened in this instance. The outcome that we have for the National Library for Wales is that we have a new national librarian who is a fluent Welsh speaker and competent to do the job. That's what we actually have. And we have a new broadcasting archive located at the national library. That seems to me—. Those two facts appear to me to be far more powerful and testament to the way in which the Government has conducted this than the Member's reliance on delving, as ever, far into the weeds of a matter rather than being able to recognise its substance. 

If I may say so—[Interruption.] If I may say so, that is a disgraceful response from the First Minister to a perfectly valid question, which asked just for an adjudication from him. According to the code, we do have a right to ask him for a decision. He’s made his position clear, and I’m sure that we will return to this issue when more details emerge.

First Minister, turning to the historic debates under way at Westminster this week on the future relationship with the European Union, I'm sure you'll want to join with me in doing all we can to give voice to the interests of Wales. However, at a meeting of the external affairs committee yesterday, you were unwilling to say which of the options that will be debated on the floor of the Commons tomorrow you prefer. You said that to do so would be to engage with hypotheticals. But, surely, on at least one respect, there is no hypothetical—it's a question of basic principle. That was at the heart of the march of over a million people in London on Saturday. And that's the question—whether whatever preferred deal emerges from Parliament should be put back to the people. Your health Minister was clear on this question, your international affairs Minister was clear on this question, as were many other Members of your own benches and, indeed, members of your party who joined with me at the people's vote rally in Bangor. The question is, First Minister: where do you stand?

Well, I stand, Llywydd, exactly where I've stood all along. His party—. His own position moves day by day. As we know, his party had four positions in a single day only a week ago. This Government has only had one position, and that is the one that was set out very clearly this afternoon by the Brexit Minister. I hope that this week, in Parliament, Members of Parliament will have an opportunity to vote on the sort of deal that we set out in our paper, 'Securing Wales's Future'. I hope they will also have an opportunity to vote on a second referendum. Both of those outcomes are supportable from the Welsh Government's point of view and, if MPs are able to settle on either of them, we will be able to support that outcome. 

I have to say, First Minister, members of the Labour Party will be looking on with despair at what you've just said. I was standing in solidarity—[Interruption.] I was standing in solidarity with members of the Labour Party because, on certain issues, we should put aside our party differences. Yes, the people's vote is my party's policy; it's your party's policy too. Why are you and the leader of the Labour Party not standing up for it? Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit Secretary, said over the weekend that whatever solution finds a majority at Westminster—and I'm quoting him directly here, First Minister—there must be a public vote as 'a lock or a check', and that needs to be between a credible leave option and remain.

Now, it is true—it is true—that Jeremy Corbyn remains more equivocal. In the House of Commons last night, he merely said,

'this House must also consider whether any deal should be put to the people for a confirmatory vote', with no indication how he would vote. So, we have continuing confusion at Westminster about Labour's position, but we didn't expect that confusion to extend here when we voted clearly in January—the Labour Party and Plaid Cymru—together in favour of a people's vote. I have to say—I have to say to the First Minister that the water in the Labour leader's office in London may be now as red as yours, but clear it's not. Shouldn't your loyalty be to Wales? Shouldn't that weigh more heavily than your loyalty to Jeremy Corbyn?

Well, Llywydd, it's an afternoon for the Member not being willing to take 'yes' for an answer. He's already heard about four times now, I think, our position. We are in favour of a people's vote as an option. We are in favour of the sort of deal that his party and mine set out in 'Securing Wales' Future'. There it is; it can't be clearer. I'm not going to say it a further time. I think he can leave members of the Labour Party to me in Wales, thank you very much, Llywydd. On Saturday afternoon, while he was—[Interruption.] While he was engrossed in the march, I was knocking doors in Newport West. I could have introduced him to the person I met on the doorstep who told me that he had been thinking of maybe voting Plaid Cymru until he heard that they were throwing their lot in with the Tories and he certainly wouldn't be doing that now. 

The leader of the UKIP group, Gareth Bennett. [Interruption.] The leader of the UKIP group to ask question. 

Diolch, Llywydd. [Interruption.] First Minister—First Minister, a big part of your Welsh Government's economic strategy for Wales now appears—[Interruption.]

Can we hear the question, please? The First Minister especially needs to be able to hear the question. Gareth Bennett.

Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, a big part of your Welsh Government's economic strategy for Wales now appears to be the development of something that you and your Ministers are calling 'the foundational economy'. This is a phrase that has become popular with academics and politicians in Wales but which, to most ordinary people, means very little. But, even in political and academic circles, there is a danger that the meaning of the phrase 'the foundational economy' is so nebulous that it means very little in practical terms. What is your understanding of the term, and what practical assistance do you see your Welsh Government giving to help grow this part of the Welsh economy?

I thank the Member for the question. The foundational economy debate is a very important one. I agree with him that there is more to do to get that debate beyond the circles in which it currently operates. The foundational economy refers to those things that, day in, day out deliver the services on which ordinary life depends. In some parts of Wales, it is the majority of that economy. It means things like social care. It means things like producing food. It means things like delivering those day-in, day-out services that cannot be moved to other parts of the world, that endure year in and year out, and around which communities shape their future. I think it's a really important part of what we want to focus on in Wales. I'm very grateful to Lee Waters for the work that he is carrying out on behalf of the Government in this area, and I look forward to that debate proceeding beyond political and academic circles and engaging those people whose jobs and livelihoods depend upon it.  

Yes, thank you for clarifying that, First Minister. Now, you mentioned social care and food, and housing, energy and construction have also been mentioned in the past by your Deputy Minister when we've talked about this subject here in the Chamber, although it's early days for this discussion as yet. Now, many of these jobs are already in Wales, as you pointed out, and many of these jobs, unfortunately, are relatively poorly paid. So, supporting the growth of this kind of job may not be a good way for Wales to try and move to a higher skilled and better paid type of economy, which is what your economy Minister has said in the past that you want to do. Is there therefore a danger, First Minister, that if you focus too much on the foundational economy, you might just be creating more low-paid jobs with poor training and poor working conditions?     

I disagree with the Member that the sort of jobs we are talking about are not highly skilled. I think it's one of the things that bedevils the UK Government's migration policy—this attempt to divide people into people with high skills and low skills. People who work in social care have very high skills indeed, and they are often very well trained, and the work that we are doing across the Government to make sure that we invest in the future of that workforce—to register it, to provide the training that they need—will have the effect of raising the skill levels in that profession. And as we do that, so too we are determined to make sure that people who do those jobs are properly remunerated for the work that they do. So, I don't agree with that basic proposition—that by focusing on these really important sectors, we end up in the trap that the Member refers to. In fact, our determination is to do exactly the opposite. 

Well, if we look at some of the types of jobs that have been mentioned before—the utilities—many of these are call centre jobs, and this sector is not particularly well known for good pay or conditions. Many people get taken on as agency workers. There's often a problem of shift work, lack of training and a sink-or-swim mentality for managers as regards worker development. Retail banking has been mentioned before. That has a better reputation but, of course, we're in an era where more and more bank branches are closing. Food retailing—many of these jobs are under threat from automation. These are major economic factors that are destroying these jobs, or rendering them not very pleasant sectors to work in, and it will be a heck of a job for the Welsh Government to be able to row against this tide and make these kinds of jobs a growth area, and an area that is going to be jobs that are not just a job, but jobs that actually have good conditions and career development. Given all that, First Minister, is developing the foundational economy really a very sensible long-term strategy?  

Well, Llywydd, I understand that the rules allow the Member to ask me a question for each Member in his group. [Laughter.] But I had hoped that by the third one, we might have had a bit more progress than we've managed so far this afternoon, because as far as I can tell, I've been asked the same question three times, and I offer him the same answer: the foundational economy is a very important part of the economy. Our ambition is to invest in it, to improve skills, to improve productivity, to improve pay levels and to recognise the significance that those jobs have both in the lives of the individuals who we are lucky enough to persuade to carry them out, but also in the communities that depend upon them for their collective livelihoods.