2. Will the First Minister make a statement on the performance of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales? OAQ54798

Llywydd, the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales has made good progress in its inaugural year. Its first annual report was published, as intended, on 27 November.

I thank the First Minister for that answer. As you say, on 27 November, the commission presented its first annual report. No Assembly Members were invited, and I am informed that even the Chair of the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee, Russell George, was not informed of the presentation. It would seem massively disappointing that, after sitting for 12 months, the report simply outlined a series of areas on which the future work plan will concentrate. However, just a cursory glance at this report tells us that all of these aspects have already been identified and discussed at length in Assembly committees, and in the public inquiry into the M4 relief road. It would appear to be simply a cut and paste exercise, surrounded by the usual preamble. So, First Minister, if it has taken the commission, with 12 members, 12 months to come up with the questions, how long will it take to come up with the solutions? Given this process is again a considerable cost to the taxpayer, is the First Minister truly satisfied with the progress made so far?

Llywydd, I hear around the Chamber that other Assembly Members take a different view as to whether or not invitations were issued for them to be part of the publication of the annual report. I don't agree with the Member's assessment of it. It is important that the commission provided an evidence-informed baseline assessment in its first annual report. That is what it was asked to do. It identifies the three key themes of decarbonisation, connectivity, and resilience. It identifies 10 specific key issues that it says it is going to address, and asks for views, from Assembly committees and others, as to how they might best be resolved. It sets out three areas in which it intends to concentrate over the year ahead: in digital communications, especially in low-density rural areas; in renewable energy and connections to the electricity grid; and transport, where it wants to explore issues of capacity, congestion and decarbonisation.

I think the annual report is a solid start to the work of the commission, and what it will do is to respond to the report of the relevant committee, agreeing that the first state of the nation report should be in November 2021, and that it will report, as the committee recommended, every three years thereafter. The Government has undertaken to review the commission by May 2021, both its scope and remit. And I think all that demonstrates that there is an active programme of work that the commission has begun to get a proper grip of, and that there is a plan in place for it to continue to discharge that work over the years ahead.

I should confirm I was at the event last week. But what I will say is that, although I was there, I was very underwhelmed by what was said at that first annual report. It's taken the commission one year to find out that what they need to focus on is energy, digital connectivity, broadband and transport. Well, any of us in this Chamber could have told the commission just that. The only thing I did learn last week is that the commission, which is set up to look at the long term, isn't going to take any evidence on the long term approach at the moment. So, I have to say I am totally underwhelmed by the commission's work to date, and I don't think that the commission is currently up to meeting the challenge that it has before it.

Can I ask, First Minister, do you think that the current approach lacks ambition and substance? What are you going to do in terms of changing the approach that's currently happening so far, with a lack of ambition and substance taking place? How many staff does the commission appoint at the moment? And how many staff will be appointed in the future, because I do think it needs to be properly resourced? You are appointing a long-term chair, which I do think is welcome, and what qualities would you expect to see in that long-term appointee? 

Well, I thank the Member for that. I'm glad that he was able to be present at the launch of the report. I don't accept what he says. When I last answered questions on the floor of this Assembly about the work of the commission, I was asked around the Chamber if it was going to be considering issues to do with water, to do with waste, to do with flood risk management, to do with housing, and the commission has, quite rightly, had to make choices in its first year about the issues on which it should concentrate, and that was a proper exercise of selection so that its priority areas in the next 12 months could be identified.

There is, indeed, an exercise that is currently ongoing for the public appointment process for a long-term chair of the infrastructure commission. I am glad, Llywydd, that in the discussions that I have had with your office that that post is on the list of significant public appointments that will be tested through a pre-appointment scrutiny process here in the Assembly, and Members who have strong views on the qualities that the person appointed to this post should have will be able to test that individual through that scrutiny process.