3. Statement by the Deputy Minister for Social Partnership: The Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Bill

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:51 pm on 7 June 2022.

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Photo of Hannah Blythyn Hannah Blythyn Labour 2:51, 7 June 2022

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I will try my best to address some of the more substantive contributions from the Member there, given this is a significant and landmark piece of legislation, and it should be treated with respect as such. However, I would say, once again, the Member does, at best, misunderstand the intent of the legislation, not least the content, but seeks to deliberately misrepresent it as well for his own political ends. And I extend the invitation, as we do to all Members, to a further technical briefing as part of this legislation. And I would be more than happy to sit down with the Member myself to go through the legislation in detail to address some of the points that he has made today, to give him reassurance and to make clear that, actually, what we are doing is about giving equal voice and equal weight—actually making sure that we strengthen fair work in Wales.

On the point that the Member made towards the end, I've taken that as, 'Fair work is great, as long as workers who are impacted by that aren't given an opportunity to shape that or have a voice'. So, what this legislation seeks to do is to underpin that social partnership work that we already have, to put it on a formal footing, and, actually, to give us that greater connectivity and consistency of approach so that we can be as effective as we possibly can, and to strengthen that with the legislative underpinning, but also through the social partnership duty on public bodies. And many good employers, not just public bodies, already work in social partnership, and what this does is just strengthen that and gives them the support and opportunity to do that as well. 

In terms of procurement, successive reviews of procurement in Wales have actually shown that we need to legislate in order to make good practice and make progress, and deliver well-being outcomes through procurement and make it more consistent. This legislation is responding to those reviews in terms of how we need to build on that and improve in the future. 

Just one final point to pick up what the Member said, to address the points he made around supply chains, actually, the contract management duties in this legislation seek to strengthen that around supply chains, particularly within, for instance, the construction sector, where we know there are significant challenges in terms of the way in which the sector works and the length and complexity of the supply chains, and also in terms of how we ensure we strengthen the statutory code of practice when it comes to the outsourcing of any public services.