Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 15 December 2021.
Gweinidog, I was very pleased to see, as part of the co-operation agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government, that you will explore how to set meaningful targets to increase public sector procurement from the current 52 per cent. As Paul Davies has highlighted, there are huge economic benefits for local businesses to have this public sector procurement because of the huge contribution they make to their local area. Last month, the Prif Weinidog praised Carmarthenshire council's challenge fund project. He mentioned that all the milk used in schools in Carmarthenshire is Welsh milk, but incredibly, some of that milk has to be taken not just outside Carmarthenshire county, but outside the country, outside of Wales, in order to be processed and bottled, and that the local authority in Carmarthenshire is committed to doing some work to see whether processing capacity, co-operatively based, could be recreated in the county. How can we make sure that this type of best practice on procurement can flow across the whole of Wales, including in my region, so more local products and services can be purchased and promoted in Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan and Rhondda Cynon Taf? Diolch yn fawr.