6. Statement by the Minister for Education: The 21st Century Schools and Colleges Programme

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:13 pm on 16 March 2021.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 4:13, 16 March 2021

Thank you very much, Suzy, for that. Good to see you back. Can we say we missed you very much last week in our debate on the curriculum and assessment Bill, given all your hard work in scrutinising that Bill?

Can I say you're correct in that there are some outlying projects that were initially earmarked for band A of the programme? There are specific circumstances in each case. Any commitment from the Welsh Government to spend money in the twenty-first century programme is subject to local authorities going through all the usual planning processes, and sometimes that can prove challenging. We are aware of cases where, also, sometimes there has been a delayed completion of the project through unforeseen circumstances, such as the collapse of a contractor who may have been initially earmarked or indeed have begun to work on a project, which sometimes then has led to a delay and local authorities having to go back out to secure new contractors, being subject, of course, to all of the regulations around public procurement. And also, sometimes, as with any building project, despite everybody's best endeavours, additional features and challenges can sometimes be uncovered on a site that perhaps had not been fully anticipated at the beginning of the project. So, those could be some of the reasons why we have seen a few projects not being delivered as quickly as possible.