In addition to our respective committees' scrutiny of the draft budget for 2019-20, this year the Finance Committee, the Children, Young People and Education Committee and the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee felt the time had come to combine our efforts to examine the impact of the Welsh Government’s budget decisions, focusing on equalities, children and young people. We therefore jointly gathered evidence from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, Mark Drakeford AM, who was at the time the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, and Julie James AM, who was the then leader of the house with responsibility for equality. We have also sought the views of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales throughout this process.

As this is a joint debate, I will focus my contribution on our principal findings, allowing Chairs Lynne Neagle and John Griffiths to share the perspectives of their own committee portfolios. Our report makes five recommendations, all of which the Welsh Government has either accepted or accepted in principle. We have reached one overarching conclusion, namely that we need to go back to fundamental principles. That’s the overarching conclusion that we've reached, but there are a number of specific recommendations emanating from that.

Our first recommendation asks the Welsh Government to clearly set out in greater detail the strategic integrated impact assessment process, its purpose and the expected outcomes, following, of course, engagement with and agreement from the relevant statutory commissioners. We do feel that the Welsh Government needs to be clear about why it conducts an assessment, who uses that assessment, what they hope to understand from it, the best method for presenting it, and what the process is. This needs to be done, of course, with the assistance of the various statutory commissioners, and we are concerned at the lack of involvement they reported having in the development of the Welsh Government’s integrated impact assessment tool.

We feel that these tools should be used to inform, steer and influence change. Collectively, the commissioners were concerned that they appear to be used to reflect or justify decisions that have already been made. We therefore welcome the Minister’s commitment to work with the relevant statutory commissioners to provide greater clarity on the purpose and expected outcomes of the SIIA process. Of course, we acknowledge that amalgamating many different impact assessments is no easy task, and we recognise the Welsh Government’s efforts to draw a multitude of information into one SIIA. However, to provide a credible foundation for scrutiny, impact assessments need to clearly demonstrate the evidence base on which they draw, and we must ensure that this is not diluted as a result of this integration.

Impact assessments are critical tools for Government transparency and, if they are to have any value, they must meaningfully inform financial allocations. More detail is required as to how decisions have been reached, and we have repeatedly called for the Welsh Government to detail where spending decisions may have negative as well, of course, as positive impacts, which are the ones that we usually hear about. As things stand, it is not clear what factors have steered decision making without seeing the work behind the SIIA. Consequently, we have recommended that the Welsh Government publish all of its individual impact assessments to a central location, which can then be referenced by the SIIA. In her response, the Minister says that,

'Individual impact assessments on significant decisions are generally published as part of policy documentation on the Welsh Government website.'

However, there does not appear to be any systematic publication of those impact assessments. The Minister has agreed in principle to this recommendation, indicating that she needs to consider further whether publication in a central area would aid accessibility, understanding and transparency. We fully acknowledge the value in publishing impact assessments alongside the related policy documents. Of course, the same is also true of publishing individual impact assessments alongside the SIIA. During our joint scrutiny, it became apparent that expert stakeholders are unclear about the basic principles and processes behind the Welsh Government’s approach to the budget impact assessment and the distinction between the SIIA and the new integrated impact assessment tool.

Our third recommendation calls on the Welsh Government to undertake a focused piece of work to consider the progress made in relation to SIIAs at the end of this Assembly, including the integrated impact assessment tool that it has developed. The Minister has accepted this recommendation, acknowledging the need to review and improve the process and the tool. Her response refers to testing alternate approaches alongside preparations for the forthcoming budget and looking at whether this work could be supported by the future generations commissioner’s journey checker. It would be helpful if the Minister could provide more information on the alternate approaches being tested and the timescales involved, as well as, perhaps, indicating when she anticipates completing the 2019 review of the integrated impact assessment tool.

Our remaining recommendations relate to the integration of legislation and fears that specific duties are minimised or displaced by others in decision making. Our fourth recommendation seeks a commitment from the Welsh Government to using the well-being of future generations Act as a framework for the SIIA. Given the focus of our joint scrutiny, we believe that priority should be given to working with the children’s commissioner and Equality and Human Rights Commission to ensure that the legislative requirements in relation to equality and children’s rights are fully and effectively reflected in the assessment process.

The Minister has committed to continue to use the Act to frame and inform budget proposals and the integrated impact assessment tool, but she acknowledges that further work is needed. Indeed, the future generations commissioner does not consider that this has happened sufficiently to date in the budget process. We welcome the Welsh Government’s commitment to continue the dialogue with key stakeholders and with statutory commissioners, which will be crucial to ensuring that satisfying its various legal obligations is not weakened in an integrated approach and that transparency in its decision making is improved.

During our evidence session, the then leader of the house indicated that she had commissioned a piece of research exploring the best way of incorporating various international treaties and the equality Act’s socioeconomic duty into Welsh law alongside existing duties. She also explained that a meeting of the future generations commissioner’s advisory committee in November of last year would allow all of the commissioners to collectively discuss the opportunities and challenges of the integrated impact assessments. So, our final recommendation sought an update on the outcomes of the November 2018 meeting of the commissioners, and when the research commissioned on the integration of duties is anticipated to be published.

We are concerned, but not surprised, to note that during the meeting last November some members voiced concerns about the potential dilution of the integrated approach. As a result, Welsh Government officials were subsequently due to attend the future generations commissioner’s advisory panel meeting in July, and we are keen to know how that meeting progressed. We understand that the Minister will commence further substantial research by September on the integration of new duties and we look forward to receiving further updates on how this work is developing. I, as Chair, also look forward to hearing the contributions of Members to this debate, as a constructive contribution to this continuing work and this continuing important debate on assessing the impact of budgetary decisions made by the Welsh Government. Thank you.