6. What assessment has the First Minister made of the value for money and effectiveness of Welsh Government spend? OAQ55140

Llywydd, we draw on a wide range of guidance and evidence to help assess our investment decisions, including the high-level principles set out in Her Majesty's Treasury's Green Book, and the seven goals of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

I thank the First Minister for that reply. Does he agree with me that one of the many failures of devolution is that, over the last 20 years, Wales has actually dropped to the bottom of the income table of the home nations and the regions of England, and one of the biggest failures of Labour and Plaid Cymru Governments in the last 20 years has been the failure to attract higher paid employment to Wales? The Government has been strong on road maps and strategies, but actually very poor on delivery. We've had enterprise zones that have spent about £250 million in the last decade, at a cost of about £20,000 per job, but that has only scratched the surface. In the case of the area around Ebbw Vale, the Government turned away the chance of £450 million-worth of private investment for the Circuit of Wales to replace it with £100 million promised of taxpayers' money in 2018, and, as yet, no foundations have been laid for the buildings that were promised, and, of course, no jobs have been created. In the meantime, the Heads of the Valleys road—the Gilwern to Brynmawr section—is £100 million over budget, and much delayed. What we see here is a Government that just hasn't got a grip on the major economic problems of Wales. Is it any wonder, therefore, that more and more people are thinking that this place is pointless and that the Assembly should be scrapped?

I think the Member is much in danger of confusing views of the institution with views of individuals who find themselves here. So, it's a mirror, rather than an analysis, that he—that would lead him to the best conclusion. 

Look, I completely disagree with what he has to say, Llywydd. He's ever gloomy in his views of Wales and of Welsh people. People who were here in 1999 will remember that if we'd said then that, within 20 years, Wales would have economic inactivity levels at or below the UK average, when we were so far behind 20 years ago, and getting further behind—. If, within 20 years, you thought that that gap had not just been narrowed, but had been completely filled, people would have said to you that you were being absurdly optimistic about what could be achieved in a 20-year period. If you'd said then that the latest unemployment figures showed unemployment in Wales not just at the UK average but below the UK average, people would have thought that you were being stretchingly ambitious in what could be achieved in that period. If you'd said to people back then that the rate of business growth in Wales would be faster than the UK average, that business survival rates at the end of a year would be greater than the UK average, people would have thought you were describing an economic future that was beyond our grasp. That's the reality of the Welsh economy. It's so far away, it is so far away from what the Member hopes to be able to describe in a way to rescue his own future here. It has nothing at all to do with the future of Wales.