Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 1:59 pm on 19 January 2022.
When it comes to both UBI and the four-day working week—and, of course, Jack Sargeant has a question on four-day working week trials coming up later today—we are interested in what is happening. We have nothing to lose from reviewing the evidence in other parts of the world and seeing how comparable it is. We always have challenges about how we prioritise Government resources that are limited, and are undertaking trials that are meaningful and worth while, and can tell us something about what may be able to apply in the future, and how widely spread that opportunity may be as well. It's why the universal basic income pilot is a pilot to learn more, and the First Minister has been very clear—it's a pilot that initially targets a group of people where we know that there are not great outcomes for those people in the wider economy, to learn more about how we can support that group potentially, and then whether it could be successfully applied in a wider area. And, of course, that's the whole point of pilots—to learn what works, sometimes to learn what doesn't work, and then to see if we can apply it more widely and more successfully. So, I retain an open mind and a real interest in learning from action in this country, across these islands and, indeed, from further afield as well.