Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:53 pm on 16 July 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:53, 16 July 2019

Well, Llywydd, internal audit procedures are always designed to make a judgment as to whether or not what may have happened should be of interest to the police. I share the Member's frustration at the length of time that it sometimes takes for police to conduct their enquiries and to decide whether or not they want to bring forward prosecutions. But that is the correct relationship. Internal audit decides whether there is a case to be examined, and then prosecution authorities come to their own separate conclusion as to whether or not to take action of a criminal nature, and that's what happened in this case. I regret some of the time delays that seem to surround some of these sorts of cases, but that is the right way for these things to happen.

Scrutiny of decisions that we make happens all the time. It's part of the way in which decisions are made. There is always internal challenge to them, there are always questions that are asked, and when a decision is made, there is always a scrutiny of the implementation of that decision. In instances where investments are made and things don't work out as we had hoped, then, of course, we go beyond that, and that's what we have done in this case and that's why I listened carefully to what the leader of the opposition said to me some weeks ago, and the report is now available for people to see. We will go on learning the lessons from all these experiences, as any sensible Government would do. The publication of the report is part of that, but there are all the normal ways in which Government assesses the efficiency and the effectiveness of decisions that we have taken, and looks to put right any deficits that are highlighted when we have reports of this sort.