I imagine that the 'Delivering for Future Generations' report must have made for some uncomfortable reading for the Minister, given the overwhelming number of criticisms that have been laid at her feet and how poorly implemented this legislation has been.

The commissioner herself has expressed deep concern that her office is massively underfunded to fully implement this Welsh Government’s flagship future generations policy, and although it has been shown that the future generations commissioner does deliver in some select cases, there are many reported instances where public bodies in Wales have felt totally unsupported. Indeed, 

'For some, communication and correspondence is "limited", and attendance at Public Services Boards (PSB) meetings', by the commissioner, is 'fairly sporadic'. The Welsh NHS Confederation goes a step further, highlighting that they're unsure about what level of support they can actually expect, that the implementation of the Act is not always clear, and that they would actually welcome more practical support from the commissioner's office. Upon being questioned about this, the future generations commissioner felt that she lacked the resources to deliver this programme of work because she has the lowest budget of any commissioner in Wales. Moreover, the commissioner highlighted that 43 per cent of their office time is actually taken up by,

'supporting, advising, and lobbying the Welsh Government' to implement the Act within its own organisation. It is unbelievable, yet not surprising, given the overall incompetence of this Government that they cannot even implement their own legislation in their own organisation, and their commissioner is so fed up that she is willing to state that it's not her job to lobby the Welsh Government. 

Minister, why is the future generations commission spending a disproportionate amount of its time trying to get this establishment to work within the confines of the well-being of future generations Act, when it should be looking at increasing its profile and supporting outside organisations? Given that 87 per cent of the Welsh public, and, more startlingly, 8 per cent of Welsh public bodies, have never heard of the well-being of future generations Act, can the Minister agree with me that after five years the Welsh Government has failed to deliver its flagship policy? And will the Minister agree with the students who engaged with the inquiry that it's the fault of the governing party if ultimately things aren't right?

Further analysis of the report shows that the Welsh Government seems to have no idea whatsoever on how to implement this legislation, a fact highlighted by WWF Cymru, whose investigation concluded that there is no systematic, coherent approach by the Welsh Government to implementing the Act and there is a little evidence as yet that the Act's framework is driving any policy development. Indeed, the inquiry also heard from other public bodies and stakeholders that there was a siloed approach to working in Welsh Government, that there was a lack of consistency in how the Act is applied, and that there is a culture of slow change within the organisation. More negative criticism came from the auditor general, who stated:

'Repeatedly...we're seeing decisions taken by the Welsh Government that are not entirely congruent with the spirit of the Act.'

The chief executive and librarian of the National Library of Wales has argued that

'It's difficult to see where the policy of the Government in relation to culture and a thriving Welsh language is aligned with the requirements of the Act at present.'

Further damning criticism came from the commissioner, who agreed that

'we got off to quite a slow start at the beginning of the Act coming into force. We weren’t really seeing that very clear political leadership around the Act, and therefore it wasn’t really flowing down into the civil service and so on.'

The commissioner further went on to say, rather bluntly, in the report:

'when you start getting different bits of guidance and policy coming from Welsh Government, which doesn’t link to the thing that they’ve created in statute over here and that takes us off in a different direction, that is where the whole thing starts to be undermined.'

Sadly, this sentiment is shared by many public bodies in Wales, that the Act, although readily featuring in the Government's headline messaging and policy intent, appears to have no coherent message to how this actually translates into implementation; that this Act is overly complicated, overly inconsistent and, to paraphrase the future generations commissioner, complicates an already complex landscape. 

Finally, in closing, from reading the report, it is obvious that public bodies in Wales believe that the Welsh Government has shown very little political leadership in implementing this legislation, that it consistently needs to be lobbied to implement its own legislation, and there's very little evidence that the Act is driving forward any policy development or that it's a coherent approach. I understand that the Minister will do everything to save face on this damning report, but, in the simplest possible terms, can the Minister explain whether they will take seriously this criticism and respond accordingly, or will they simply deny it and carry on regardless? The future generations website declares that the well-being of future generations Act remains the only legislation of its type in the world and is regarded by the United Nations as a role model for other countries to follow. If this is truly the case, then this Government should be truly embarrassed. Thank you.