Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:14 pm on 14 January 2020.
I thank Darren Millar for that series of questions. In his closing remarks, he talked about a seat at the table, and I think that encapsulates it to me in many, many ways. I think what we need to see in relation to this policy agenda in Wales is a sense that the arrangements are agreed between the Governments of the UK operating in parity, rather than imposed by the UK Government on other parts of the UK. I think he's hit the nail on the head in using that particular image, and he will acknowledge, I think, that I made a reference in my statement to the indication that the UK Government has made about the replacement of quantum, but we don't yet know what they regard that figure as being. And crucially, even if that principle is accepted, what we have not had is any detail about how the devolution boundary is going to be respected in the deployment and the setting of those frameworks in Wales. Again, this is not something that we can have imposed on Wales, and I hope he would agree with that.
I will give him the reassurance, categorically, that we will always seek to be collaborative with the UK Government in relation to this policy area. We have throughout sought to do that and, bluntly, it hasn't been reciprocated. I hope that with a new Government that will be the case. It will best happen if the devolution boundary, for which people in Wales have voted on two occasions, is respected. I think that then provides the platform for that engagement, and we will seek to be collaborative in relation to that.
He mentioned, as he is so fond of doing, his analysis of why the funds have not been effective in Wales as he describes it, and yet, ignoring the tens of thousands of new jobs created, the tens of thousands of businesses supported, the tens of thousands of people helped into employment, the increasing levels of employment, the falling levels of unemployment, the falling levels of economic inactivity and higher skills levels. [Interruption.] I'm not sure if he's completed his question—I rather thought that he had. [Interruption.] The challenge that we face in Wales is that—