Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for European Transition (in respect of his European Transition responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 2:49 pm on 27 January 2021.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 2:49, 27 January 2021

They are not dead in the water; they are the fruit of very considerable joint working with the private sector, public sector, third sector, universities, and so on, right across Wales, and they remain the Welsh Government's ambition for supporting regional investment in Wales through the shared prosperity fund and, indeed, in any other way. We are working with stakeholders to understand, obviously, what is a shifting landscape in Westminster in relation to this. What I would say to the Member is that we have not had the close discussions we would have expected to have at this stage, even, as it were, at this late stage, with the relevant Whitehall department. I think there has been a woeful lack of ministerial engagement with us around that. My understanding is that there has been a delay in the piloting—in the prospectus for the pilots—which won't now, obviously, be happening in January, and I think may not even happen in February. I do want to reiterate that the framework provides an approach for the future that has a broad base of support in Wales, which the UK Government would, I think, do well to engage, because that represents what businesses, local government and, as I say, other public bodies across Wales want to see as the future of regional funding in Wales. We have a plan. It's a plan that has been consulted on and co-designed and co-developed, and that is the framework that I think best represents the way for the shared prosperity fund to be put to work, and that should be done in partnership with us, rather than attempting to circumvent the Welsh Government.