Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:41 pm on 17 November 2020.
Well, Llywydd, it's one of the sadnesses that we've had almost no opportunities at all to have those conversations. My colleague Jeremy Miles, who leads for the Welsh Government on these matters, wrote to the Minister said to be responsible for the shared prosperity fund, back in October, asking for meetings with UK Government Ministers in order to be able to contribute some of our thinking and to take advantage of some of the flexibilities that could be there in the future. A meeting was never provided.
We've had one meeting with the Secretary of State for Wales, who promises us further meetings once the Chancellor makes his statement on 25 November. But that's just not good enough. We want to have discussions before the announcement is made, not after it. In that case, we might be able to do some of the things that Caroline Jones was referring to, because I think we have always said that at the other side of the European Union there may be more flexibilities—we may be able to use the money differently geographically, we may be able to draw in other funds in a way that you can't within the European Union, we may be able to use money for purposes that the EU rules did not allow us to use the money for here in Wales. There are some opportunities here. We have identified them with our partners. We would like to have had an opportunity to share that with the UK Government and, despite asking for those opportunities, they have never come our way.