1. Will the Counsel General make a statement on the operation of the shared prosperity fund? OQ56010

6. What assessment has the Counsel General made of the impact of the UK shared prosperity fund on the devolution settlement? OQ55988

The UK Government’s announcement on the shared prosperity fund has broken every promise to the people of Wales, including that we would not be worse off outside the European Union. We will continue to challenge any attempt by the UK Government to bypass matters that are devolved to Wales.

Sorry, can I just ask—? Has the Government agreed to group this with question 6?

Forgive me, Dirprwy Lywydd. Yes, indeed. Forgive me.

Thank you. Sorry, David.

Thank you. I thank the Counsel General for his answer. As the Counsel General will know, I am an avid supporter of Brexit. However, I have always advocated that each and every competence returned to the UK Government that is a devolved competence should be passed to the devolved Governments in its entirety. This also stands for any monetary benefits accruing from leaving the EU. The shared prosperity fund is a manifestation of that financial gain. I therefore urge the Counsel General to emphasise to the UK Government the cross-party support you have for this to be implemented in such a way that the Welsh Government decides where that money is spent.

Well, I thank David Rowlands for that further question. If we were still in the European Union, from January, Wales would have had a full year's allocation of around £375 million, in addition to those payments already being made through the current programmes. As he knows, there will now instead be a £220 million UK-wide fund, and there are no details still on how this funding will be distributed. I'm pleased to be able to rely on his support in our continued advocacy of the will of the people of Wales that these funds are replaced in full, and that matters in relation to those funds are devolved to this Senedd and the Welsh Government.

I refer Members to my interest in the non-remunerated role in chairing the regional investment Wales steering group, but my question lies outwith the work of that group. I've received representations, Minister, from higher education sector representatives in Wales, with their concerns over the UK shared prosperity fund and the UK Government's proposals. And they note that the UK shared prosperity fund will start as a pilot programme, with a total of £200 million for the entire UK, whereas the Towns Fund for England, by contrast—England alone has been allocated £4 billion and established at pace. And they note the disparity between the Conservative Party pledge in the 2019 manifesto, saying that,

'The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will...tackling inequality and deprivation in each of our four nations.'

And,

'at a minimum'— these are the words—

'match the size of those funds in each nation.'

They do not understand the incongruity between the manifesto pledge and the details of the review. So, Minister, could you help us and our higher education institutions in Wales understand the clear incongruity between what was promised and what is now on offer?

Well, can I thank Huw Irranca-Davies for the work that he's undertaken, with a range of stakeholders right across Wales, chairing the group that he did, to help the Government devise the framework for regional investment, which was published mid-way through the last month? It was a work of great collaboration and creativity, and reflects the interests of a range of different stakeholders, in all sectors in Wales, including those that he mentions in his question. He will know as well as I know that what people and organisations and businesses and higher education institutions in Wales want is fair and transparent funding, rather than a political pork barrel. And that is why they've lent their support to the framework, I think, which he has helped us to devise.

Now, there are two aspects to this. One is the constitutional aspect—and we've discussed that previously today, and I know that he shares my view that it's outrageous, really, that the approach the UK Government has taken is to circumvent that. But there are very practical benefits to this as well, as I know that he knows. Part of the vision that we have as a Government is to enable these funds to be integrated with other funds that are available from different sources, to be delivered on the ground through the network of delivery that the Welsh Government and its partners in Wales already has, and to be built and devised on the basis of collaboration, joint working, consultation and co-design. None of those are features of what we understand to be the UK Government's approach in this way, and all of them are features of what the Welsh Government wishes to see in the future.

Counsel General, we've seen the Tory UK Government repeatedly talk about its levelling-up agenda, but there was scant evidence of that in the recent comprehensive spending review when it came to Wales. And now, as we approach the end of the transition period, the well-worn promise that we wouldn't be a penny worse off after Brexit is looking very thin, as the Chancellor gave further details of the UK shared prosperity fund. What assessment have you made of the shared prosperity fund, how it will live up to its promise as a fit and proper replacement for EU structural funds, particularly in areas such as mine?

I thank Vikki Howells for that question. I would like to be in a position to give her an assessment of the shared prosperity fund, but the scant detail that the Chancellor gave us in the spending review doesn't enable us to do that with any confidence. Now, she will know, as I do, that there are programmes and businesses and institutions, organisations in communities right across Wales who will have hoped that programmes would be in place for the beginning of the new year, in order to continue delivering the benefits to employability, growth, zero carbon transition, and all those other benefits that we've derived from funding to date. And they are not in that position because details have not been provided by the UK Government about programmes ahead, and we know already that next year's funding will be an absolute fraction of what otherwise would have been the expectation, and indeed, the promise to people in Wales. It's one of a long list of broken pledges of this Conservative Government in Westminster.