Part of 5. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 4:14 pm on 26 June 2019.
Thank you for your answer, Deputy Minister. Given what you have said yesterday that your Government doesn't know what it's doing on the economy, can I ask did the Welsh Government know that Jistcourt was facing any financial difficulties, and, if so, when and what specific action did the Welsh Government take at that time? It would be useful to have a summary of events. I know that my colleague Suzy Davies has been attempting to contact and obtain information from the company since last week, when social media was reporting speculation on the company. And perhaps the Welsh Government is in the same position of not being able to also have contact with the company as well. It'd be useful to know and understand that.
In respect of Dawnus, the Government has stated that no information on support provided through the Welsh Government was provided to any client-based organisation or the wider public or the supply chain, and you've outlined your reasons for that previously. But I think questions still need to be asked around transparency and accountability of the Welsh Government in, effectively, allowing local authorities to pursue contracts with companies such as Dawnus or Jistcourt from a due diligence perspective. It appears as though local authorities, and, indeed, other public bodies have been largely left in the dark about the financial liabilities of these companies in evaluating their commercial potential for public contracts. If they had been informed of the financial liabilities of these companies by the Welsh Government, whilst respecting commercial confidentiality, do you not agree that it would have made a more significant difference to the local authority's due diligence assessments of these jointly funded contracts—jointly funded, actually, I should say, by the Welsh Government?
And finally, Deputy Minister, can you provide a commitment, or a renewed commitment, that the £3.5 million housing project that Powys County Council is undertaking in Newtown in my own constituency will continue to be supported by the Welsh Government? The local authority, obviously, was using Jistcourt as the company to construct that development, and there will now be a delay, obviously, as they now seek new contractors for that project. A renewed commitment in that specific project would be appreciated from a constituency perspective.