We move on now to item 3. That item is the statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government, a procurement update. I call therefore on the Minister to make her statement—Rebecca Evans. 

Diolch, Llywydd. Procurement is one of the most important and powerful levers the Welsh Government can use to help achieve its programme for government aspiration of a more prosperous, more equal and greener Wales. Sustainable economic growth, fair work, decarbonisation and delivering effective public services are just some of the priorities that can be supported through clear, smart and effective procurement policy. I’m pleased to provide Members today with an update on our work with partners across the public, private and third sectors to support these ambitions.

The diverse scope and vast scale of Welsh public sector expenditure provides firm foundations to maximise our contribution to the seven well-being goals in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. Welsh public sector procurement also has the ability to deliver wider social value outcomes for the well-being of Wales. 'Social value' is a broad term that has been used to describe the social, environmental, cultural and economic impacts of actions taken by communities, organisations, governments and individuals. This Government is committed to working with partners across Wales and beyond to develop a modern and sustainable approach to procurement, and I have commissioned the Wales Co-operative Centre consultancy to map the current social value landscape, including the various tools available to the Welsh public sector. Wales Co-operative Centre will be engaging with stakeholders to capture findings and make recommendations to support the delivery of social value in Welsh Government, and ultimately support a consistent approach across Wales.

Procurement is an area where a great deal can be achieved when progressive partners work together, and the Welsh Government’s co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru includes a commitment to explore how to set meaningful targets to increase the proportion of procurement spend provided to Welsh-based suppliers from its current level. We already encourage and support small and medium-sized enterprises to tender for opportunities, and I'll explore further measures that can make the tendering process easier and more practical for small enterprises in Wales. To further increase the proportion of Welsh suppliers, we will carry out a detailed analysis of the public sector supply chains. I recently met with Plaid Cymru’s designated member, Cefin Campbell, to discuss the early-stage development of this work, and I will provide a further update to members on the different strands of the work in due course.

The Welsh Government already does a lot of work to promote the purchasing of made-in-Wales products, including the use of Welsh steel in infrastructure projects. I'll explore further with my ministerial colleagues the opportunities that the new Wales infrastructure investment strategy gives us to make further progress in this area, including extending the opportunities for Welsh steel in public projects. 

In relation to the UK Government’s procurement reform proposals, my officials have been working closely with the UK’s procurement reform Bill team to input into the development of the Bill. Members will recall my written statement of 18 August, where I set out that provision for Welsh contracting authorities is to be made within the UK Government’s procurement reform Bill. This decision followed engagement with social partners and stakeholders across the public, private and third sectors, and was subject to the receipt of written assurances from the UK Government that joining the UK legislation would not negatively impact Welsh Government’s social partnership and public procurement (Wales) Bill, rather the legislation will complement each other and maximise our ability to achieve the important policy outcomes we seek.

Whilst the UK Government’s procurement reform Bill will focus on the underpinning processes across the commercial lifecycle, the social partnership and public procurement Bill will focus on ensuring socially responsible outcomes are achieved from our procurement. As my colleague the Deputy Minister for Social Partnership has confirmed, my officials continue to liaise with both the UK’s procurement reform Bill team and the social partnership and public procurement Bill team to ensure minimal misalignment between these two important pieces of legislation.

We understand that it is the UK Government’s intention to introduce the procurement reform Bill when parliamentary time allows. My colleague the Deputy Minister for Social Partnership has also previously indicated that we remain on track to introduce the social partnership and procurement Bill in the first year of this Senedd term. It's therefore possible that both the UK’s procurement reform Bill and Welsh Government’s social partnership and public procurement Bill will be introduced to the Senedd around the same time. Together, these two Bills will provide a new, progressive platform for procurement in Wales that delivers social, environmental, economic and cultural outcomes, including our ambition to make Wales a fair work nation.

We are very mindful of the support that will be needed by practitioners and industry as a result of these changes in legislation, and we will work with stakeholders to ensure practical and comprehensive statutory guidance will be in place as soon as possible after the Bills have gained Royal Assent. This guidance will be particularly important in the context of the continued challenge around the lack of procurement capacity and capability in the Welsh public sector. I was pleased to issue a written statement to the Senedd earlier in November highlighting what we are doing to help to boost the profession. In collaboration with stakeholders, we have delivered a programme for raising the capability and capacity of the procurement profession in Wales with funding of nearly £700,000 since 2020. We have supported 118 public sector staff members to undertake the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply corporate award programme. The bespoke courses incorporate use of familiar language and terminology, drawing on Welsh examples to help students put Welsh procurement policy into practice. I have recently approved future funding for the programme that will support another 76 places on the cohort programme.

During the last year, we've also carried out a discovery exercise to help us improve our digital procurement systems and to get them ready to support both procurement reform and other important policy drivers, such as the social partnership Bill. This feedback was used to create our latest digital road map for procurement for the next three years, and this work has now moved into its delivery phase. Our work also aligns with recommendations from the future generations commissioner for a Welsh procurement centre of excellence. We launched a discovery exercise at the end of last year with stakeholder contribution from across the Welsh public sector. I'll be considering the findings and recommendations arising from the exercise over the next few weeks.

There is a great deal of exciting work being undertaken by this Welsh Government to drive forward procurement for the benefit of the Welsh public and for future generations, and I look forward to hearing from Members across the Chamber today. Diolch.

Can I thank you, Minister, for your statement? I welcome some of the developments that have been previously outlined by the Welsh Government and expanded on by you today. For example, I'm pleased that the Welsh Government has decided to work with the UK Government on its proposals to transform public procurement now we have left the EU. I think using one legislative vehicle and cross-governmental collaboration will help to ensure that there is a more consistent and simplified approach to procurement in the UK. This will open up new opportunities for businesses in Wales, as well as enabling the Welsh Government to pursue its own agenda.

Minister, could you expand any more on your statement regarding discussions with UK officials about the development of the Bill, as well as your views on the UK Government's response to the consultation that was published in December of last year? How will your proposed social partnership and public procurement Bill ensure legislative coherence with a future UK procurement Bill? Also, what discussions have you had with organisations in Wales about the support, besides the statutory guidance and capacity funding that you reference in the statement, that they may need to adapt to the proposed new legislative framework?

I'm also interested to understand how the response to the pandemic has informed Government thinking regarding the procurement landscape in Wales. COVID has put huge pressure on systems that often have had to adapt very quickly, resulting in significant challenges. Minister, what progress has been made to strengthen the procurement sector since the publishing of your statement 'Evolution of Welsh Government Procurement' back in March 2021? Furthermore, could you provide an update on progress on the recommendations made by the future generations commissioner in her recent section 20 report, some of which has important implications for the Welsh Government, particularly regarding leadership?

And finally, Minister, in any discussion about procurement, I couldn't resist referring to my own food (Wales) Bill, which, at its heart, is looking to increase opportunities for local food producers to sell more of their fantastic produce here in Wales. Now your co-operation agreement with Plaid references promoting the purchase of made-in-Wales products and services, what work has been carried out so far to increase the amount of locally produced food purchased by public bodies? Diolch.

Thank you very much to Peter Fox for those important questions and for giving me the opportunity to say a little bit more about the Welsh Government's response to the challenge of procurement reform now that we have left the European Union. Procurement is very much a complex landscape and one that is now changing, and there are opportunities for us to use the UK Government's Bill in one sense, but then also to augment that, because we've always been very clear that the decisions on the policy outcomes that we want to achieve from procurement should be only made here in Wales, and we do have very different views to the UK Government on some of those things, such as the importance of fair work and the role that procurement can and should play in driving that forward. And that's why our social partnership and public procurement (Wales) Bill will be so important in terms of enshrining those in law.

Nonetheless, I think it is an opportunity for us to use the UK Government's legislation to reform the basic underpinning processes, and those processes were set out in the UK Government's Green Paper to which Peter Fox has referred, 'Transforming public procurement'. We were presented with the option to use the Westminster legislation to reform those underpinning processes. We thought long and hard about what the right thing to do was, and we engaged very widely with Welsh contracting authorities and their view was very much that we should be going with the UK Government on this Bill, however, we should be looking at a Welsh Bill in terms of what we want to achieve. So, the kinds of processes and the nuts and bolts are in the UK Government Bill, and then the outcomes that we want to drive forward will be done in our own legislation. I think that strikes a pragmatic balance in terms of procurement reform after leaving the European Union.

Peter Fox referred to the pandemic, and one of the good things, I suppose, if we think of anything good coming out of the pandemic, has been about the way in which procurement has reformed and the way in which the procurement profession here in Wales has really risen to the challenges. Officials have worked right across the Welsh Government to procure urgent critical items, and those included, for example, the food boxes for those who were shielding across Wales, provision of mental health support to all NHS workers, accommodation for those offenders who were released early during the lockdown period, and then contracting with Royal Mail for prescription delivery, providing support to critical equipment requirement teams and the visitor pods for care homes. So, there are great examples of ways in which the procurement profession here in Wales grouped together, really, to tackle the problems and the challenges of the pandemic, and I think did a really excellent job, also, working closely, for example, with the WLGA to make face coverings available to all Welsh schools. Early on, we worked with a Welsh manufacturer to deliver high-quality, reusable and accredited face coverings, which were then delivered to schools. As well as promoting safer working environments, we managed to create jobs as a result of the expansion of that company. So, wherever possible, we were looking, through the pandemic, to support Welsh businesses but then also to look for those supply chain voids that we could fill. And that's an important piece of work that we're taking forward now beyond the pandemic—looking at our supply chains and where there are opportunities for us to fill those gaps here with supporting new Welsh businesses.

The future generations commissioner's report was really important. We worked very closely with the future generations commissioner when she was interrogating us and officials about the work that we do on procurement, and the report's been very helpful, I think, in terms of focusing our mind on the way forward. The procurement centre of excellence suggestion has been really helpful, and, as I mentioned in the statement, we launched that discovery exercise at the end of last year, again with stakeholder contributions from across the Welsh public sector. Those findings are coming together and I'll be considering them now over the coming weeks as we get everything in place, and I'll be able to provide a further update to colleagues on that as we move forward. But, again, I think having a place where we have that excellence, a home for that excellence, here in Wales, is important. We've looked at the model of the Centre for Digital Public Services, which, again, is a repository of excellence and knowledge and so on, and that's been a useful model for what we're hoping to achieve through the procurement centre of excellence.

There's a lot of interest in what we're doing in terms of food procurement. I know that Peter Fox has had some useful discussions with some of my ministerial colleagues on this as well. Our programme for government does commit to developing a Wales community food strategy during the course of this Senedd term, and that has the potential, I know, to deliver many benefits that could help us along the road to those future generations well-being goals. Of course, food is the common factor, but then societal benefits can be really wide-ranging, including economic benefits, regenerating local communities, improving well-being, mental health and physical health and the environment, and sustainability benefits, too. So, there's a lot for us to have future discussions on, I think, as we take forward that work, because I know this is an area of particular interest for Peter Fox. 

Thank you, Minister, for your statement. I've used, of course, in the past the comparison that the Welsh economy is like a bucket with holes in it, and it's not water flowing out of it but wealth and money that would strengthen the Welsh economy and local economies across Wales if we managed to close those holes in the bucket.

We are, of course, talking about huge sums here: £6.3 billion a year on public procurement in Wales—less than half of that remains in Wales. Now, we've talked about this for over 20 years of devolution and I still don't feel that we've reached the position that I think we should have reached, to be honest, and we're looking at other nations across Europe where over 90 per cent of the value of public procurement remains within the boundaries of those nations. That's why, of course, Plaid Cymru wanted to create a target of 75 per cent of the value of procurement remaining in Wales, and that is important because every additional 1 per cent that we do keep corresponds to 2,000 new jobs. So, reaching that target would create 46,000 jobs in Wales and would create them without spending any additional money—only spending the money that we already spend in a way that brings more benefit into our economy here in Wales. I'm very pleased—and the Minister, of course, referred to the co-operation agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government—that this aim of establishing a target is something that will be considered seriously now to try to ensure the greatest possible benefit for the economy here in Wales. 

I acknowledge the fact that you referred in your statement to increasing capacity and increasing skills within the procurement practitioners in the public sector. Of course, I'm sure we would all acknowledge that there is a long way to go yet, but certainly in terms of capacity after we saw a number of procurement departments being run down over the years as a result of economic cuts and austerity in terms of public expenditure.

There are many benefits, as the Minister has outlined, in good procurement policy. But what I haven't heard in your statement is what the fundamental principles that will be at the heart of public procurement policy are. Tell us, for example, to what extent you will demand in your policy that it will be a 'local first' policy, where possible. That, I assume, would be the starting point, and if it isn't available locally, then you go further afield to seek those products or services that you want to procure.

The statement talks about working with other Ministers, of course—you referred specifically to steel in that regard. Can you tell us what other areas you'll be focusing on and prioritising? I would presume, and we have heard in the previous contribution, that food and agriculture is one sector ripe for benefiting from, and this would all contribute towards increasing the processing capacity in Wales in the context of food in particular.

Will you also encourage every local authority in Wales, perhaps, to emulate the success of Gwynedd Council? Because the council has used the social benefit procurement clause and, as a result of that, they've seen an increase of 39 per cent in their expenditure on contracts and products within Gwynedd. It's gone up from £56 million in 2017-18 to £78 million last year. Now, Gwynedd has shown in that regard what is possible, but, of course, this has to be the norm and not the exception, perhaps. So, I would ask you to congratulate them, but also to encourage other local authorities to emulate that success.  

Finally, Minister, you mentioned the UK Government's procurement reform Bill, of course, and you know where Plaid Cymru stands on letting the UK Government legislate on matters that have actually been devolved to us here in the Senedd. Peter Fox was asking about how we can ensure legislative coherence. Well, let's do it ourselves—let's make sure that both pieces of legislation are introduced simultaneously by the same Government and scrutinised by the same Senedd. But you say you have assurances that allowing the UK Government to legislate on our behalf won't negatively impact the Welsh Government's proposed social partnership and public procurement (Wales) Bill. Are those the same kinds of assurances that they gave you on EU funding or on agricultural funding or the other examples that you yourself regularly remind us of where the UK Government haven't been true to their word?

I thank Llyr Gruffydd for those important questions, and I'll begin by referencing the agreement that we have with Plaid Cymru in our co-operation agreement, which is to explore how to set those meaningful targets to increase the Welsh public sector procurement from its current level. As a first step, we will carry out a detailed analysis of the public sector supply chains and promote the purchasing of made-in-Wales products and services, and that's going to be an important piece of work. But, actually, we understand at the moment that the percentage of Welsh procurement spend is around 52 per cent. Well, that's the figure that we're able to publicly share. However, we don't consider that to be an accurate representation of the amount of procurement spend that goes into Welsh companies. Obviously, there are a number of reasons for that, one of which being it's based on the postcode of the invoice address for the suppliers being in Wales, and, obviously, there are several limitations to that approach, because it doesn't take into account the supply chain that sits underneath the prime contractor.

At the moment, we're not able to do a more detailed analysis of the supply chain because we don't collect the data to enable this. But during the last year, we've undertaken a discovery exercise to help us improve our digital procurement systems, and that's to get them ready now to support our procurement reform and, in particular, transparency and other important drivers, such as the social partnership Bill. So, as part of that work, we're working on the implementation of the open contract data standard, and that will improve the transparency throughout the procurement cycle, and then the aim is for that then to give us a level of data that we need to get a much more clear picture of the spend that is staying in Wales. And we do have a member of our procurement team undertaking an assignment as part of their Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply qualification to look at spend specifically in Wales. So, as we move forward jointly with Plaid Cymru on this particular piece of work, I know that we will be getting better-quality data to support that work, which I think is important for us to really understand the difference our decisions will be making as we move forward together on that. 

Llyr Gruffydd asked about the capability and capacity of the sector. I know that there are many excellent people working in the sector, going out of their way to try and get good value for public money, and doing more now in the space of getting that social value. As the profession does seek to navigate that increasingly complex landscape, we do need to be investing further in capability and capacity, and that's one of the reasons why we've introduced a programme whereby we're funding 50 individuals from across the Welsh public sector to undertake the practitioner and the advanced practitioner programmes of the CIPS corporate award. All of those individuals have committed to remain in the Welsh public sector for the long term, and I think that that's really important, because often we train up people who leave then to work elsewhere, and take all of that knowledge with them. And we've also got four students who are now in their penultimate year of their logistics supply chain and procurement qualification at the University of South Wales, and they're being offered one-year placements in procurement departments across Wales, including in Welsh Government. Again, that's with the aim of keeping those talented people here in Wales and here in the Welsh public sector.

So, there's a lot going on in the field of capability and capacity, including preparing a suite of core commercial e-learning modules, which will be important, as are the early discussions that we're having around exploring options to establish a national procurement apprenticeship programme, which will be quite exciting, and the possibility of a procurement mentoring programme for Wales as well. So, again, lots happening in that particular space. 

Then there was a question about what are the fundamental principles underpinning all of this, what we really want to achieve through procurement. Well, in March 2021 I published the revised Wales procurement policy statement, and that sets out the strategic vision for public sector procurement in Wales, and that was written in partnership with our stakeholders. It aims, really, to help us define our progress against the well-being goals that we are pursuing for future generations, and it has the future generations Act at its heart. The key to its delivery, really, will be in collaborative working, and we aim to refresh and review that statement regularly with partners, to ensure that it is a true reflection of how we are moving towards that shared ambition for public procurement in Wales. 

Welsh Government has published an action plan to underpin delivery against the statement's principles, and that's published on our website. We're now encouraging buying organisations, either individually or in a collaborative way, to also publish action plans of their own. 

And then finally on this, the proposed social partnership and public procurement (Wales) Bill's statutory guidance will take into account that the Wales procurement policy statement and the associated action plans place contracting authorities under a duty to deliver socially responsible outcomes through procurement that places fair work and social value at the centre, rather than being focused on financial savings.

Areas in which we're keen to look particularly—so, Llyr Gruffydd mentioned steel and food; I'm also very keen to do more work on timber, and this is something that we're looking at across Government. And also we're doing a wider piece of work looking at those supply chain voids that I referred to in response to Peter Fox, so we can identify those opportunities to grow Welsh businesses to fill those gaps.

Then, in terms of the legislative reform, I know we have principled fundamental disagreement on that, but we have had written assurances from the UK Government in this respect. Also, we're exploring which parts of the UK Bill we want to carve out Welsh Ministers from, so work is going on in that space as well. But I do know that officials are meeting very, very regularly with UK Government on this, and are interrogating the detail very, very carefully.

I welcome this statement and hope we can later on this year have a Government debate on procurement. Procurement is one of the most important and powerful levers the Welsh Government can use to help achieve economic growth. Sustainable economic growth, fair work, decarbonisation and supporting the local economy can all benefit from a progressive procurement strategy. The Welsh public sector, including Welsh Government, health boards and Welsh Government sponsored bodies, together with local government, housing associations, colleges and universities, are major purchasers of goods and services. We have seen what Preston achieved in one city; just think what could be achieved within one nation, as in Wales. Will the Welsh Government make fair work a prerequisite for tendering for Welsh public sector contracts? Will the Welsh Government ensure that any firm that engages in fire and rehire will not be eligible to tender for Welsh public sector contracts? And will the Welsh Government look to reduce the size of the contracts to increase the number of local companies that can tender? Far too often we see the main contract going to someone in England or in Europe and then the subcontracts going to companies in Wales, and far too much of the profit then goes to England and Europe and doesn't stay in Wales.

I thank Mike Hedges for those particular questions, many of which will be part of the detailed policy discussions that will be had as the public procurement Bill here in Wales starts to develop. And I know that my colleague the Minister for Social Justice will have heard those particular queries in relation to what the Bill will aim to achieve and what legislation will put in place.

I'm really pleased that Mike Hedges acknowledged the importance and the opportunity that public procurement has in respect of decarbonisation. That was one of the areas that he referred to at the start. We're seeking to explore what more can be done in that area. Very recently, we've been publishing Welsh public procurement notices for the Welsh public sector in Wales. That covers Welsh Government, the NHS, local authorities and others. And one of the areas we've been doing work in is in relation to purchased goods and services. So, that would include business travel, employee commuting, waste disposal, use of sold products, transportation and distribution, up and downstream, investments and leased assets and franchises. And I mention that because the importance of addressing purchased goods and services is underlined by research that shows they can account for up to 60 per cent of an organisation's total carbon footprint. So, the opportunities there to make some inroads in relation to the journey towards net zero are quite significant. Part of our work through the procurement notice is supporting Welsh contracting authorities in the ways in which they can drive their carbon footprint down through decarbonisation—down through the choices they make through procurement, I should say. So, that's been really important. 

Mike Hedges is right to point to the good work that was undertaken in Preston. That was really what started part of our journey towards the foundational economy work, looking very closely at what happened there and employing the Centre for Local Economic Strategies to provide us with some detailed advice on how we can start to do similar things here to make sure that we have that pound recirculating within our foundational economy approach here in Wales. So, all very critical points, and some of those more detailed questions will be part of the consideration for the Bill.

Minister, I'm sorry if this sounds a bit like repetition, but we all do know just how important public procurement is and what an actual big economic lever it is for the public sector to help our businesses right across Wales. And, Minister, my question is: what engagement and discussions have you had with the Welsh Local Government Association and the economic forum that they have there to try to encourage local authorities right across Wales to support local businesses, because doing that will help local economies right across Wales? And, following on from that, what is the future of Sell2Wales with this Bill, because I know a lot of local firms in my constituency tell me that they struggle to get on the Sell2Wales frameworks, and then it's obviously very difficult for local authorities then to use local firms because they have to go through Sell2Wales. So, if you could tell me what the future is also for Sell2Wales with this Bill. Thank you. 

Great, thank you for those questions. You're right that this is significant spend within Wales. It's around £7 billion that's spent through the Welsh public sector every year on procurement, and in Wales we have 267,000 businesses, of which 99.4 per cent are small and medium-sized enterprises. So, huge opportunities for us to be supporting these businesses. Our business support agencies in Wales, such as Business Wales and Sell2Wales, are there to help SMEs adapt to and meet the special requirements of the public sector, and also changes in procurement—because of the large amount of reform that we have at the moment, they need to be actively engaged to help them win more contracts. So, one of the things that we are doing is looking very much at our digital systems, and we have a digital action plan for procurement that is now in its delivery phase. One of those important strands of work is to upgrade the Sell2Wales system to support the open contracting data standard work that I've mentioned previously in response to another colleague, and to improve transparency. And I think that that will be important in terms of helping small and medium-sized enterprises engage better, because I think that there's work for both sides, really—there's work for the public sector to do to be more accessible and make its systems easier to navigate, but also work for the private sector to do, then, in terms of engaging.

And I mentioned the public policy notices previously, and one of them, which looks at small and medium-sized enterprises, does give advice to Welsh local government and other contracting authorities in terms of what they can do to help engage more small and medium-sized enterprises. Examples of the advice include cutting down on admin that is needed to tender, simplifying documents, providing very clear briefs that identify all of the requirements and using plain language. You'd think that would be a given, but, actually, procurement is so complex that if it could be broken down for businesses that perhaps haven't navigated public sector procurement before, I think that that will make a difference.

And then we also recommend adopting e-procurement tools, so those would be including, but not limited to, e-sourcing, dynamic purchasing systems, e-auctions, e-invoicing, electronic catalogues and purchase cards, and then packaging large contracts into separate elements to make use of regional lots, if that's possible and appropriate, to ensure that SMEs aren't excluded from contracting. And then we also ask that potential SME suppliers are given the opportunity to discuss in person procurement in order to understand if they are suitable for that particular lot.

So, I think that there's good advice that we've provided recently in our new procurement notes, but I'm very happy to have further discussions with the WLGA as to what more we can do in this space to support them to procure locally. 

I had a very interesting conversation with an economist recently who gave me a series of interesting statistics as we discussed the Government's policy in terms of procurement, and this is what I learnt. Thirty five per cent of the workforce in Wales work in health, education and care. As a result of that and the number of people working in the public sector, around 70 per cent of public funds go on different levels of wages. From public funds in Wales, around 17 per cent is spent on fleets of cars and so on, the long-term supply chain, things that aren't going to be made in Wales. So, bearing in mind procurement and these statistics, should we not ensure that more of our public expenditure is used on training, developing and local employment, ensuring that we have the skills here to do the work, similar to the programme to develop nurses, 'Grow Your Own Nurse', that Hywel Dda University Health Board has?  

Yes, thank you for raising that question, and, absolutely, I've talked about the importance of capacity and capability within the procurement sector, but there is a great deal to do in terms of ensuring that people have the opportunity to find employment within our public sector. One of the things that I'm quite excited about is our personal learning accounts. So, we introduced these about 18 months ago, and it's part of our piloting work for the gender budgeting approach that we have here in Wales, but I think it's quite exciting now that we're expanding that to other areas too. The personal learning accounts are really there to support people who are potentially in employment at the moment, but who want to move up the ladder in their field of employment, or to potentially retrain to do something else. And I think there are big opportunities for that to be used within the public sector to ensure that people are able to access the roles that are for them. 

I'll give some further thought to the contribution, then, and potentially explore it with some of my other colleagues, because we do have a ministerial group that looks at procurement, and that's there to have those cross-Government discussions to ensure that we're all considering opportunities for joined-up approaches to procurement so that we can learn from each other and identify common challenges across Government. I think that the point you make about skills and capacity is one of those common challenges, so I'll be sure to have that as an item on our next agenda. Thank you.

Next week, I'm going to be visiting an organic beef and sheep farm in the First Minister's constituency, which I'm much looking forward to. You won't be surprised to know that I'll be raising, with the Farmers Union of Wales officers who are going to be there, what we can do to grow more fruit and vegetables in Wales, which at the moment we currently import, which means they're less fresh and less nutritious. So, in light of the words of Rachel Lewis-Davies from the National Farmers Union, that farmers will grow anything where there is a market, what are we doing to help local authorities break down their procurement needs, particularly with free school meals for all primary schools in mind, so that contracts can be let in bite-sized chunks? Because we don't want all the business going to one particular business; we want to ensure that we have local markets and farmers being able to feed into particular needs for, say, two or three schools until they can expand their business further. But they're not—. How are you going to do this, given that it's not like turning on the tap, and you've got to plan these things? It seems to me that's quite a challenge for the public procurement Bill, which I look forward to scrutinising in the Equality and Social Justice Committee.

Thank you, and I'm smiling at the 'bite-sized chunks'; I thought that was a great way to describe making lots for food contracts smaller. So, that was lovely. Yes, I just want to reassure you that we are very much working with a range of stakeholders to understand the requirements and the opportunities, now, which have been provided by the co-operation agreement measure in respect of free school meals for all children. I think that there is significant opportunity there. And then we're also working with Caerphilly council, who lead the Welsh public sector food frameworks programme, which I know you're familiar with, and also working with Castell Howell and other wholesalers to seek to increase the supply of Welsh food into the public sector through the frameworks. It is ongoing, and it does need to be planned, of course, into the Welsh suppliers' production and supply arrangements. So, it's that point, really, about farmers being able to produce what the market wants them to produce. So, those discussions have to happen too. And Caerphilly council has established a food group through the WLGA, and that's to plan the approach and structure for the next food tenders, which are due in 2023, so another opportunity and a key milestone coming up there, I think. The aim of that work is to maximise the opportunities for small food producers and to increase the amount of Welsh produce that is going through the framework. So, that's going on ahead of 2023, which I think is key.

We're also doing some important work with Monmouthshire council to develop hyperlocal understandings of grower and supplier capability within that council, and that's going to be important work then to help us improve the resilience of local supply chains there, and we've also now funded that work to be scaled up to cover the whole of Gwent. So, again, another important project that we can learn from.

One interesting thing I've discovered in preparation for today was that poultry shortages have hampered our efforts to increase the supply of Welsh poultry, and we found, actually, that local poultry suppliers have greater value on the existing private sector supply chains and that they're less keen to engage with new public sector businesses, because the supply chains that they have with the private sector are working just fine, it appears, at the moment. So, we need to find a way for our offer to be attractive and consistent to producers in Wales. And we do hope that a Welsh public sector poultry line can be developed in 2022-23. So, that's a specific gap in the market, as it were, that we've identified. And then, just finally, we're funding innovative NHS and local authority food procurement projects to increase local supply, and that learning will be shared across Wales.

Thanks, Minister, for bringing forward today's statement. As you outlined right at the start, procurement is one of those significant levers that can be pulled in tackling climate change, and I was really glad to hear you reference that decarbonisation can be supported through a clear, smart and effective procurement policy—that's what you said. Last week, though, I had the pleasure of attending, believe it or not, the Finance Committee's scrutiny of your budget on behalf of a colleague, where procurement was raised by the future generations commissioner, Sophie Howe, and she shared with us that, in 2019-20, she carried out a section 20 review into procurement, looking at 363 Sell2Wales contracts. And the findings were quite staggering. Not a single one of those 363 tenders referenced carbon reduction as a requirement in terms of those tenders. So, there seems to be a significant gap between what is spoken about in the Chamber from the Senedd in terms of climate change and what is being done with those current levers of change through procurement. So, with this in mind, Minister, do you think the current procurement framework reflects how seriously you're taking the climate challenge that we're all facing?

Thank you for raising that, and it gives me a really good chance to highlight a new approach that we've detailed in another one of our Wales public procurement notices, which is 'Decarbonisation through procurement—Taking account of Carbon Reduction Plans'.

So, essentially, Welsh Government has decided to mandate the use of carbon reduction plans for Welsh Government contracts valued at £5 million or more from 1 April of this year. And we obviously recommend it, then, as good practice to the rest of the Welsh public sector, and it will basically help us go on that journey to net zero by 2030 for the Welsh public sector. And it's supported, then, by the route-map that we've published, the 'Net zero carbon status by 2030: A route map for decarbonisation across the Welsh public sector'. What it essentially does is introduce a requirement for all bidders for public contracts valued at £5 million or more to include carbon reduction plans as part of their tenders, and WPS contracting authorities can verify prospective supply chain partners are committed to working with them to achieve net zero by interrogating those carbon reduction plans. So, I think that those are a really important and significant new approach, which will be mandated now from 1 April.

Alongside that, we've been working hard to provide Welsh contracting authorities with new resources, so we've provided a new net zero carbon reporting spreadsheet and supporting guide for public bodies to calculate and report their carbon emissions. You will have heard in perhaps some of the—or some colleagues will have heard in some of the—evidence sessions about Welsh Government's approach to demonstrating our carbon impact of our spend through our draft budget, and the work that we've got in our infrastructure finance plan, which sits underneath the new infrastructure investment strategy. And then I also just want to highlight a natural resources publication, which is 'Advice on emissions accounting and reporting methods to inform Welsh public sector decarbonisation policy delivery'. So, I think there have been some quite important innovations recently, which should take us forward in this area, and I think that the carbon reduction plans will be an important part of that.

We're talking about the environmental benefits, the economic benefits of developing procurement policies that are robust for Wales, and the pandemic gave us another very clear reason for the benefits of having these strong supply chains, and the Brodwaith company in my constituency was one of those companies that diversified to provided PPE to the health service, and the Elite company in Ebbw Vale was also another company that stepped into the breach in order to provide our health and care services with what they needed. Unfortunately, and this is something that I've raised with the economy Minister and the health board in the north, there are signs that those contracts are going to be withdrawn from these Welsh companies now that things are starting to return to normal. Of course, that is a major loss to those companies, which are in danger of losing business as a result of them having diversified, but it's also a major loss to the Welsh economy and to the health service. Can I have an assurance that the finance Minister will be looking at some of these examples of good practice during the pandemic period to ensure that they're not lost in terms of those specific contracts for the Welsh companies in question, but also the principle of what was trying to be achieved through moving to providing contracts to Welsh companies, and the benefits, as I said, being prominent on several levels?

Yes, thank you for raising that. And I know that you have written to the Minister for Economy, setting out your concerns particularly in regard to Elite Clothing, and I have had the opportunity to look at that, and I know that the Minister is preparing a response to that. 

I know the commercial procurement delivery team has established a dynamic purchasing system for PPE and work wear, and that's designed to maximise the opportunities for Wales-based employers to engage, and Elite Clothing is now part of that. And that means that the Welsh public service organisations can now liaise directly with them rather than going through sub-contracting arrangements, which hopefully will provide a quicker route to their door for the Welsh public service.

But, as I say, I'm aware of the issue and the fact that the Minister for Economy is looking into it, and I'll be sure to have a conversation with him about it after your contribution today. 

And, finally, Alun Davies. 

I'm grateful to you, Presiding Officer. And I fear that I'm going to be adding to that conversation, Minister. It's profoundly disappointing that a new way of working, which was embedded, many of us felt and thought, by the statements made by yourself, by the First Minister, by the health Minister, by the economy Minister, in the midst of a crisis and a pandemic, seems to be drying up already. And if we are to make a reality of the rhetoric that we hear from Government, then that must be felt in companies such as Elite, such as those social enterprises that have kept the NHS going during the pandemic, and have supported the work of this Government. Now that support needs to continue. And we simply cannot walk away from our responsibilities and walk away from our rhetoric. We need to make sure that this actually happens. 

So, I'd be grateful, Minister, if we could ensure that the point made by Rhun ap Iorwerth, from Sir Fôn, myself from Blaenau Gwent, are conveyed to the heart of Government, and that we ensure that there is a response that maintains this policy, and which continues to ensure that these people receive the contracts, and we deliver on the promises that we as a Government have made.

Thank you to Alun for reinforcing the points made by the previous speaker. I know that Alun Davies has also expressed his views directly to the economy Minister as well. We will make sure that we have the opportunity to discuss in greater detail both of these particular cases, but then also the overarching point that you make about not losing these new ways of working, and the goodwill, really, that we've had from businesses across Wales, which have switched from their normal production, be it—. Well, we've got examples not far from me where they switched from producing gin to making hand gel, but I think they've gone back to gin now. But there are other examples of businesses locally that have switched from making flags to making scrubs and so on. So, I think, yes, just recognising the way in which businesses in Wales stepped up is really important, and I'll continue these discussions with my colleague the economy Minister.

The Deputy Presiding Officer (David Rees) took the Chair.