8. Will the First Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government’s service level agreement with the Valuation Office Agency? OAQ55119

I thank the Member for that question, Llywydd. The Welsh Government concludes an annual service level agreement with the Valuation Office Agency. It sets performance targets that the Welsh Government expects the VOA to meet. Decisions made by the VOA are determined by that agency, and are entirely independent of the Welsh Government.

I'm sorry, First Minister, I call that 'passing the buck'. During Plenary last November, I raised the fact that your Welsh Government had a £9 million of taxpayers' money SLA with the VOA. Now, some of my businesses in Aberconwy are still waiting over two years to see their business rate appeal's progress, leaving many businesses with financial difficulty and, in fact, financial ruin. Now, the Counsel General, of course, agreed to look into this last November. What a waste of time, because in response to a recent written Assembly question, the Counsel General stated:

'As the provisions in the service level agreement are being met'

They're not being met. Those are your words.

'and the agreement itself is being monitored, I have not identified the need for further action.'

Well, I would invite either you or you, First Minister, to come and speak to some of my businesses who are still waiting now for their business rate appeal. When I procure something for me or my family, I have a say in the quality of that service delivered. You are the First Minister of Wales, you have a say on the quality of the service delivery from the VOA. There's no getting away from it. So, I would like to know how are you going to review the targets that the VOA are expected to meet, and how do you actually scrutinise the use of taxpayers' money and this failing service here in Wales? Thank you.

I thank the Member. I want to agree with her that the performance of the VOA in specific instances of the current appeals process is not satisfactory. But the Member does need to recognise that this is quite properly an entirely independent arm of Government, and it has to be. It's right that it is. I did ask my officials yesterday to see whether the VOA could provide me with any further updates on the two instances that the Member has written to me about over recent months, and they refused to provide those details. They refused to provide the details because they said it would not be proper for them to disclose to Government the confidential matters that they have to determine with the people who use their service. And, on reflection, I think they were right. That's why we have arm's length organisations, so that Governments don't make these decisions; the VOA does.

Now, if the VOA is not delivering on its service level agreement with us, then we need to put that right. But my way of putting it right is probably different to the Member's, because I want us to change the appeal system in Wales altogether. The appeal system is not fit for purpose. It's been changed in England and has run into enormous difficulties there. What we have said is that we have brought forward the revaluation from 2022 to 2021, provided the UK Government stick to that—it was interesting to see that they didn't have anything in their Queen's Speech to put that commitment on to the statute book, but it's a commitment they've given in the past. If they honour it, then we want to change the appeal system here in Wales, alongside that revaluation, because it's just leading up to and just following a revaluation, Llywydd, that the appeals come in. We want a new system next time around, and that will allow us, I believe, to avoid some of the difficulties that we've seen with the current system. 

Finally, question 9, Rhun ap Iorwerth.