Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:17 pm on 26 January 2021.
I'm very familiar with the report of the Wales Governance Centre to which Helen Mary Jones refers, and a very useful addition it was to the developing literature on what Wales should seek in relation to the benefits system. I take a different view, I suspect, to the Member. I'm in favour of seeking aspects of the administration of the welfare benefit system; I am not in favour of breaking up the UK's social security system. That's because I think that the United Kingdom offers a different opportunity to pool resources and share out rewards according to need, and that that is to the benefit of Welsh citizens, particularly our poorest Welsh citizens. The Wales Governance Centre report did say, as Helen Mary Jones says, that if we were offered devolution on the same basis as Scotland, that could lead to the sums of money the report identified. The report went on to say that it was highly unlikely that devolution on those terms would be offered to us, and set out the reasons why. So, I think it's important to provide a complete account of what that report said, and I'm afraid I agree with the report. It's very unlikely that the UK Government would be prepared to repeat the sort of deal that they offered to Scotland, partly because they now regret that they did so. Devolution of the administration of benefits is something that I've previously agreed with Helen Mary Jones about and I'm happy to repeat that, because I think that would give us a different set of possibilities in Wales without breaking up the access of Welsh people to the advantages that come by being part of that wider social security system.