5. What recent discussions has the Counsel General had with UK Ministers regarding the UK shared prosperity fund? OQ55441

7. What recent discussions has the Counsel General had with the UK Government regarding the shared prosperity fund? OQ55456

Llywydd, I understand you've given your permission for questions 5 and 7 to be grouped.

I met with the Secretary of State for Wales in February and we have since been seeking to build on that constructive meeting and to make our case for a future model to replace EU funding in Wales. Engagement with other departments in Whitehall continues to be inadequate, and confirmation of the UK Government's proposals is now obviously overdue.

Indeed, and, Minister, only this week the Institute for Fiscal Studies has noted that, less than six months from the EU withdrawal date, we still have no details on the UK shared prosperity fund. It's not just the Welsh Government and the Scottish Government who are calling for clarity as well as trying to engage constructively on this; it's actually local authorities in England of all different political colours who are saying, 'Please tell us what is going on'. Now, the Prime Minister made a cast-iron pledge to the people of Wales that all the money that goes towards social and economic and community programmes in Wales would be found when we leave the EU, and it would be there for us to use and for us to focus through the way we want to do it within Wales as well. So, could I ask him, does he have any confidence that, within short order, as we go into the summer, he will have clarity on the UK shared prosperity fund, clarity that all the money, every penny piece, will be returned to Wales, and that we will be able to influence the way in which decisions are made on that funding?

I thank Huw Irranca-Davies for that question, and also thank him for his chairing of the steering group on regional investment in Wales, which has put the Welsh Government and Welsh businesses and stakeholders at large in a very good position to understand what use we would be able to make of those resources if, as we hope, those promises are kept. So I'd like to thank him for his role in relation to that in particular.

We are frustrated, as is clear, I think, from what I've said already about the lack of progress on the specifics of the shared prosperity fund. As I said, there have been constructive discussions with the Secretary of State for Wales. I want to acknowledge that, but what we need is progress on the ground so that we can put these programmes in place, and that is lacking. I do think that that contrasts with the proactivity and the programmatic way in which we've approached that here in Wales. I don't have confidence going into the summer that we will have that information, in all candour. I think that we don't now expect that announcement until the comprehensive spending review in the autumn.

It may be that other factors around devolution in England and plans for post-COVID economic recovery are causing an impact at this point in time, but that now provides a really difficult context—and that's an understatement, really—for some of the projects and programmes currently in place. A rationally organised system would have ensured that those decisions had already been taken so that, going into 2021, there would have been a degree of continuity, which seems very, very hard to imagine can be possible if certainty isn't provided until the comprehensive spending review in the autumn, and that is a very serious missed opportunity.

Counsel General, earlier this year, the Secretary of State for Wales stated that,

'the collaborative approach I take with the Welsh Government over the distribution of the fund should ensure that it goes to the places where it is most needed, and is not—as some might argue has been the case in the past—blown on vanity projects.'

I welcome a collaborative approach and that the Secretary of State does not wish to see taxpayers' money wasted. Examples of ineffective spending of EU funding, of course, include Ebbw Vale's £2.3 million cable car, £3.5 million on a Bangor business park, and £77.3 million on dualling the Heads of the Valleys road. What measures—[Interruption.] Do you want to answer? What measures are you considering in co-operation with the UK Government to ensure that the shared prosperity fund sees money allocated to watertight projects so that serious problems and ineffective spending are not encountered, as they have been so frequently in the past?

Look, there's a serious role that the Welsh Conservatives could choose to play in this discussion if they wanted to. It goes beyond reading out the quotes of the Secretary of State for Wales and listing what they perceive as the shortcomings over the years, which are absolutely contested. In each of our constituencies, there'll be thousands of individuals and thousands of businesses who have benefited from the well-deployed funding that has come to Wales from European sources over the last decade. What I will say to her is that I think the tone of her question is actually out of kilter with the tone of discussions with the Secretary of State for Wales, which have been constructive. So, I think she may not have read the most recent memo. But what I would say is I absolutely accept, because it's at the heart of the proposals that we've been developing, that there's scope for looking differently at the geographic distribution of these funds, from being outside the European Union—that's one of the flexibilities that our thinking has been taking advantage of—and to look at decisions being taken at a more regional level as well. So, there's a very exciting programme of changes and reforms that we could bring in in terms of how regional funding is spent in Wales, if we have the level of commitment that we're entitled to from the UK Government.