5. How does the Minister monitor the value for money and effectiveness of Welsh Government spending on legislation? OQ57544

The cost of legislation is met from within the allocations of portfolio budgets, and Ministers take costs into account when prioritising spend for a financial year. When a Minister introduces a Bill, our planned approach for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating the policy is set out in the regulatory impact assessment.

Thank you. As the Minister will be aware, I am totally opposed to bringing in unnecessary legislation—the Trade Union (Wales) Act 2017 and the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Act 2020 to name but two. On the latter, the explanatory memorandum stated that the preferred option to legislate to remove the defence of reasonable punishment in Wales would cost a total to our taxpayers of between £6 million and £8 million. So far, the Welsh Government has spent £1,650,098. Section 1 of this Act comes into force in March. Now, since the legislation received Royal Assent, our nation has been hit by COVID-19. The impact alone on children's mental health has been severe, and the Children's Commissioner for Wales has had to speak up loudly about the fact that there are no suitable places for young people in mental health crisis. So, we do have to prioritise support for those children, who, through no fault of their own, are suffering because of the response to the pandemic. Given these concerns that there are no dedicated mental health crisis centres in Wales for young people, and the fact that you've spent £1.6 million up to now—clearly there is more money allocated for the Bill I mentioned—would you be willing to co-operate with the Deputy Minister for Social Services to review the effectiveness of the spend on abolition of defence of reasonable punishment and maybe be quite radical and look to divert some of that funding to front-line mental health services for young people? Diolch.

Well, I'm not going to make any apology for investing in removing the defence of reasonable punishment and the work that needs to sit alongside that, and I know that—. It seems that Janet Finch-Saunders and I have different views on what is necessary legislation and what isn't, but I will say, in respect of the budget for the period ahead, we have allocated an additional £100 million in respect of mental health, and some of that will be very much looking to bolster our whole-school approach to ensure that children and young people do get the support they need at the earliest point. So, mental health is a major priority for this Government, and you will see it reflected in the budget that we published before Christmas.

Minister, I don't think you need to take any lectures from the Tory party about wasting money; they are experts at doing so. But, Minister, as a young legislature, with around 50 Acts on the statute book, the Senedd is in a prime position to ensure that all its Acts are efficient, fit for purpose, and are achieving their proposed purpose. Can the Minister provide information about any recent post-implementation reviews of legislation, and whether the costs and savings predicted for those Acts were in fact accurate? Diolch yn fawr.

Yes. So, those reviews will be the responsibility of each portfolio Minister, but I have some within my portfolio that will be relevant here. So, for example, I've just announced a review of the landfill disposals tax. That's set out in legislation, that there should be a review within five years of the implementation of the Act, so we are putting together, at the moment, the commission for that piece of work. I've liaised with the Chair of the Finance Committee in terms of the scope of that work, and we would be looking to do that over the period ahead, with a view to publication in the autumn of 2023. So, that is an example of where it's set out in legislation that we must undertake these reviews, and I intend to do so.

The Senedd should be really interested in the matter of the quantum and the effective targeting of Welsh Government resources on legislation, because we note the unprecedented increase in the use of the legislative consent process, where Welsh Government resources are redirected towards Westminster in addition to that here in Wales; the additional resource needed to respond to legislation resulting from leaving the European Union, which continues; and the additional resource needed to respond to emergency legislation in response to the coronavirus; as well as, I have to say, what may be regarded as routine business of 'made in Wales' legislation in the programme for government and the co-operation agreement and routine regulations. So, we wonder, Minister: do you think there's any useful comparative analysis to be made between the resources put to legislation, drafting and policy in Westminster, or indeed Scotland or Northern Ireland, compared to that allocated here in Wales? And could the Minister tell us whether she feels there is a benefit to greater and more granulated analysis of how and where legislative resource is allocated by Welsh Government? And perhaps she, and other Ministers, and the Counsel General, could assist us in that analysis.

That's an interesting question. It's one that I will pursue with colleagues. We have a board of Ministers who have responsibility for legislation within their portfolios who get together very frequently to discuss the progress of legislation, and I think that might be a useful forum in which to have some of those discussions. So, it's an interesting proposition and I'll certainly give it some further thought and discussion with colleagues.