Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:59 pm on 7 December 2021.
As you know, First Minister, your predecessor Rhodri Morgan was highly critical of senior leadership figures within the Welsh Development Agency having outside business interests that gave rise to negative perceptions. He said, and I quote:
'Business does not just have to be done, it has to be seen to be done. That is well-nigh impossible when you have inter-locking relationships.'
It's not enough to say that these matters are just for the board, for example, when this is a publicly owned company with the Welsh Government as its sole shareholder. You amended the framework document that sets out, as I understand, the Government's expectations of the bank in relation to governance—some of the questions that I've raised with you today—in February of this year. Can I ask that you publish that document, along with the remit letter you signed with the bank as a Government last month? Will you insist on a review of governance arrangements to ensure they meet people's reasonable expectation that the public interest is neither overlapped nor overridden by the private interest of individuals, to avoid some of the problems in perception that I've raised with you today?