Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:01 pm on 17 November 2021.
I would just repeat what I said in answer to Sam Rowlands earlier about the importance of public accountability and the fact that a CJC will be required to encourage participation in its decision making by members of the public, ensuring that they are able to contribute to the shaping of the services, which is absolutely important, and I know that CJCs will want to do that work in any case. I think that there is a very strong argument that some functions are better delivered on that regional footprint. The work to improve the economic prosperity of an area is one obvious example, as is transport planning, which clearly should be done on that larger footprint. So, I think that the areas for which the CJCs are responsible are the right ones, and I think that they will make a real difference in terms of being more coherent and allowing decisions to be taken that benefit people in those areas.