Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 1:43 pm on 19 May 2021.
Llywydd, I thank the leader of the opposition for all those questions and for the way that he introduced his remarks this afternoon. I agree with him that this is an exciting time to be involved in the future of Wales, and I am very committed to a sense of urgency in the way that this Government will deal with the challenges that we know are there in front of us.
I've always taken the view myself that you appoint Cabinet colleagues and then you give them the opportunity to grapple with the issues that lie to them. The average shelf life of a Secretary of State in Westminster I think is somewhere between 15 and 18 months. That seems to me that it offers you very little time to really get to grips with the issues that your department faces, and you have often long escaped the consequences of the decisions that you yourself might make. Throughout devolution, I think successive Governments have taken the opposite view. Ministers are here to have the time they need to discharge the responsibilities they have and then to be held accountable for the decisions that they make.
When we publish the programme for government, the Member will see some of the proposals we have for machinery of Government to support the effort of the new administration. I do intend that there will be a number of key commitments that will be held in the First Minister's office. So, I will take a direct interest in the oversight of the achievement of those objectives. But the majority of the actions of Government quite rightly lie at the portfolio level, and Ministers must be given the authority to get on with the job that they've been elected and appointed to do, and when the programme for government is published, Members will see those items that I think you need the authority of a First Minister's office behind to drive through the Government and those greater number of items that Ministers will take forward and be answerable for here in the Senedd.