Questions now from the party spokespeople. The Conservatives' spokesperson, Nick Ramsay. 

Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, procurement is one of the key ways in which public bodies need to be able to demonstrate that they are securing value for money, something that we took evidence from you on recently in the Public Accounts Committee. Two of the Auditor General for Wales's reports in autumn 2017 concluded that national governance arrangements for procurement could be strengthened and should be strengthened. How are you planning to do this? 

Thank you very much for raising that issue, and I think that a key thing in our armoury in terms of procurement is the Wales procurement policy statement. Now, that was last fully updated in 2015, and that provides the strategy and the framework for the Welsh public sector to undertake public procurement. And the effective application of that has delivered positive impacts, but I know that we can do more, we can go further, so a revised WPPS is currently being developed to reflect on and build upon the closer working relationships that have been developed with the Welsh Government and the wider Welsh public sector during the COVID pandemic in our response to it.  I think our relationships in that sense have never been better, so it's an opportunity for us to ensure that our procurement benefits from our new ways of working.  

Thank you, Minister, and I'm pleased to hear that that work is under way, because the National Procurement Service frameworks do need looking at and overhauling. Public bodies in Wales have been spending in the region of £6 billion procuring goods and services, so we shouldn't be in any doubt about the importance of procurement in getting the Welsh economy moving again. Unfortunately, as you know, the auditor general's reports concluded that public bodies are not using NPS frameworks as much as was originally anticipated, whilst the cancelled procurement for Job Support Wales was a high-profile procurement failure that brought into question the Welsh Government's commitment to be an exemplar of best procurement practice. So, can you update us on, firstly, when your review into this will be published and completed, and how you are addressing these problems so that companies across Wales can be reassured that the Welsh Government is getting to grips with these problems and changing the whole procurement culture in Wales?  

I'm happy to provide that update. So, my colleague Lee Waters has been leading on some really important work in terms of the foundational economy, and, as part of that work, we commissioned the Centre for Local Economic Strategies to work with us to ensure that we can identify public services boards clusters across Wales and work with them to consider new ways of working and how they can maximise the procurement opportunities in local economies. Now, that work has been affected by COVID, but implementation plans will be agreed by the end of this month. And the underlying objective for that is to identify areas of procurement that currently flow out of the region or, indeed, out of Wales, and to ensure that that's used as the baseline then to develop those new approaches, to drive up the involvement of local suppliers in expenditure. So, a really important piece of work and a new way of working and, as I say, we should be able to say more about the agreement of plans to take that forward later on this month. 

Thank you, and I look forward to hearing that information later this month. I appreciate that officials' time and your own time and the Government's time over recent time has been preoccupied with the pandemic and dealing with that, but if I can, in my final question to you, ask how this whole issue of procurement can be seen in terms of the issue of building back better, and renewing the culture that we have in Wales. Procurement surely does have a huge part to play in achieving the building back better process, given the huge amounts of money that we are talking about here—the £6 billion I mentioned before, but there's additional money as well. It's also important, I'm sure you'll agree, that procurement policy is in alignment with the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. The commissioner has called on the Welsh Government to factor in the Act at the very start of the procurement process, or even, importantly, at a pre-procurement stage. This is, as I said before, Minister, about changing the whole culture of how we deal with procurement in Wales. It's a massive area, but do you agree that, along with tax policy, actually—another big change in recent times to the way that this place operates—it can be one of the key levers at your disposal in providing value for money for the taxpayer, supporting the Welsh economy and helping in that process of building back better? 

Yes. Oh my gosh, I find myself in agreement with the Conservative spokesperson on that issue. Absolutely, procurement can play a huge role in terms of building back better in ensuring that spend is kept in our local communities.

You'll be familiar with the foundational economy challenge fund. That's been really important in terms of identifying local areas where improvement can be made. So, an example would be the forest nation centre, and that's testing the concept of using skilled, value-added manufacturing approaches to increase the use of Welsh timber within housing, and that's something of interest across several portfolios in Government. And also the controlled environment agriculture pilot, and that's exploring the development of community, old agriculture facilities. So, lots of different ways in which we can ensure that spend is kept more locally for the benefit of local people, and that challenge fund I think has been really instrumental in bringing forward new innovative ways of working on which inevitably we will want to build as we come out of the crisis.

The Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Thank you, Llywydd. With a quarter of the Welsh population now under higher level restrictions as a result of the pandemic, I was pleased to see new measures announced last night to support people financially. I'm referring mainly to the £500 payment for those on lower incomes and support for employers to continue to employ people who are unwell. I think it's very important that we have the details of this scheme as soon as possible. Could we have those details now, and are we likely to see further announcements on support specifically for those areas identified as needing more restrictions in place?

Thank you. As you say, last night, the First Minister made the announcement about the £500 payment for people on low incomes who are required to self-isolate. As he said earlier on in the First Minister's statement, we're still working on the details of that, looking at the delivery mechanisms. The First Minister talked about the potential for using the discretionary assistance fund as a mechanism for that. Other options are available and are also being considered. And we're also looking in detail at what the eligibility criteria will be as well. So, I'm afraid I can't give you all of those details today because some modelling work is being undertaken by Welsh Treasury on that, but, as soon as we do have more details about the scheme, obviously, I'll be very, very keen to share that.  

I appreciate that you are still working on the details, but I remember another £500 payment that was announced some months ago for workers in the care sector, and it took an exceptionally long time to work out how that payment should be made, and that process isn't completed even today.

Local authorities, if I could move forward, have done heroic work during this pandemic. I am concerned to hear about some uncertainty among local government leaders regarding funding for councils as we face the winter months, which are going to be a strain, of course. According to one council, they managed to reclaim first quarter losses quite easily, but the story is very different with the second quarter. So, can I have confirmation of the additional support that's ready to be provided to compensate councils and confirmation that processes are being hastened to ensure that losses incurred already are paid back as a matter of urgency, or councils are going to face great stresses very, very soon?

Well, Welsh Government worked really closely alongside the Welsh Local Government Association and the Society of Welsh Treasurers through the early part of the summer to better understand the potential for lost income across the rest of the financial year. Lost income might come from things such as a lack of services that the council might normally provide—for example, car parking, theatres, and so on. So, a great deal of detailed work went on there and that's why I was very recently able to announce additional funding for local authorities in respect of items, including lost earnings, which brought the additional funding for local government up to nearly £500 million. So, I think we have worked with them beyond that first tranche of funding, which I recall was in the region of £70 million. But now we have provided funding that should look across to the end of the financial year. So, I'm concerned to hear that a local authority has suggested that this is an ongoing issue, but perhaps if you write to me we can get into a bit more of the detail of that.

The concern is, of course, that it will be an ongoing issue for quite some time, and there are certainly concerns about what will happen over the winter months.

And finally, I wanted to get something on record, if truth be told. As we face climbing out of the economic hole that we're in at present, it's become apparent during this pandemic that the fiscal arrangements of Wales are entirely inadequate. Can I have an assurance from you that there is discussion with the UK Government on the new rules and fiscal circumstances that you would like to see and that that will be a priority for you? And will you agree with me that this is certainly something that cannot be put to one side because of COVID—it's something that needs to be done more swiftly as a result of COVID and the economic problems caused by it?

Absolutely, I'll give you my assurance that inter-governmental mechanisms in relation to finance, and also fiscal flexibilities in particular, will continue to be at the heart of conversations that I have with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. So, you'll recall earlier on in the summer one of our big concerns was about being able to switch capital to revenue—that was something that we were looking to do. But, actually, as a result of the additional advance funding I was able to negotiate with the Treasury, I'm actually more interested in different flexibilities now. So, one would be, for example, the ability to draw down more from our Wales reserve, should we need it, or to carry more over at the end of the financial year, if we felt that was prudent to do as well. Because, obviously, the crisis is no respecter of financial years, and things can happen right at the end of a financial year, or at the beginning, and it makes the budget management very difficult.

Now, all of these things are things that the UK Government could very, very simply agree to. They don't involve additional funding; they simply involve allowing us to use the funding that we have in the best way. So, I'll continue to have those discussions. I know that there's sympathy, actually, from various parts of the Senedd on that—and beyond—so, if we can work collaboratively on that, I'd welcome those opportunities.

Brexit Party spokesperson, Mark Reckless.

The First Minister, a couple of weeks ago, was asked, I believe, about income tax rises, potentially, next year, and I think he replied that, with COVID, the economy was so weak that it'd be wrong to contemplate any increase in income tax. Does that mean that income tax rises should only be considered when the economy is strong?

So, as you say, the First Minister was interviewed on precisely this issue, and he did say that he wouldn't consider raising income taxes for people when the economy was in a very difficult situation and, potentially, in a recession. Of course, we've looked ahead at the data that we've had from the Bank of England, from others, as to what the economy might look like. Obviously, there are severe difficulties in terms of the crisis anyway, but, as we move closer towards the end of the year and potentially facing a 'no deal' Brexit, obviously that will compound the issues facing us. So, the First Minister was quite clear that there would be no intention to increase income taxes when the economy was in a particularly difficult situation. And, of course, I know that we're all turning our minds towards this as we think of what we will be offering the people of Wales in the upcoming election, and I look forward to a debate on income tax later on in the Chamber this afternoon too.

Given the very significant impact on the Welsh Government's finances of the COVID crisis, and, in particular, the likely reduction in tax yield because of more stringent measures in Wales compared to what the UK Government has done for England, how, ultimately, does the Minister expect to put the public finances back on a sustainable footing? Will she be cutting spending? Will she be increasing Welsh rates of income tax? Or will she be expecting a bail-out from the UK Government?

So, I don't think that the differential rate of moving out of lockdown between Wales and the UK Government will have a big impact on tax yields. Land transaction tax and landfill disposals tax are our two Welsh taxes, and both of those account for a relatively small portion of the Welsh Government's budget, and, of course, although the movement out of lockdown was different, actually, across both sides of the border, we both faced severe disruption to these for a significant number of months this year. So, I don't think that the impact will be great on the Welsh Government's budget.