, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Health Service Procurement (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
I'm not sure that's wholly convincing, but we'll move on from—
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Health Service Procurement (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
But you've said yourself, Minister, that it's a short Bill, it's a technical Bill in many ways. It seems to me that that is a perfect example of a piece of legislation that could be slotted into a much wider piece of work, which would be more efficient for…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Health Service Procurement (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
But shouldn't all legislation be about outcomes?
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Health Service Procurement (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Thank you. I'm grateful to you, Minister, for that explanation about the relationship between this Bill and legislation in Westminster. It doesn't seem to be the best example of inter-governmentalism, but it is what it is. I think we're all used to that by…
, Plenary
Short Debate: The structure of public services in Wales: Have we got it right?
I'm always grateful to Mike for his contributions to this. The worst mistake—I made many mistakes, but the worst mistake—I made as a Minister was to challenge Mike on local government financing and the intricacies of the council tax. The pain I suffered then…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Invasion of Ukraine and supporting Ukrainian refugees
I thank the Conservative party for tabling this debate; it's very timely, of course, because next week we will be marking the first anniversary of this invasion. I think, at a time when people seek to create divisions in politics, it's good to have the…
, Plenary
Topical Questions
I'm grateful to the Minister for his response, and I share his analysis of the problem. But Governments exist, of course, to solve problems, not simply to rehearse them. And for my constituents, in Blaenau Gwent, when they hear a Minister talking about a…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I'm grateful to the Minister for that answer. I was very engaged and taken by the answer the Minister also gave to Peter Fox in an earlier question. The answer could have been given by a different Minister a decade ago, in reality. Local authorities are…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
6. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the impact of its draft budget for 2023-24 on local authorities? OQ59141
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
Of course it is, of course it is, I accept that.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
Yes, I know you're not, but I'm feeling that I've got to search round to ask precisely the right question in order to get the answer I'm looking for, and that just feels very uncomfortable.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
Yes. Yes, and I'm feeling that I've—
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
Of Sport Wales.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
I said I'm asking the question about this. I had assumed that a remit letter goes out to an organisation, and certainly, when I was in Government, I would assume that the basic auditing of delivery and the rest of it was always done, and if there was an…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
I do understand your role, with respect, but—
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
See, I don't like the idea of all these regulators being created, because I just think it creates a web of whatever. But part of my antipathy towards those sorts of proposals is because I thought we could trust Sport Wales to be able to ensure that all this…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
But you are responsible for the expenditure of public money. Do you really outsource everything?
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
Matters of delivering on the equality responsibilities.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
I'm grateful to you for that. I presume that, after the last month or so, you will be revising the way in which you monitor these matters.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
And I accept that, sometimes, cultural issues can be more difficult to identify from the outside than a clear breach of the law, and I accept that. But where you know there are issues of failure within the WRU—and we've seen that in terms of governance, and…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
And part of that, of course, would be a duty on equality issues, and I'm just interested: if, for example, somebody was taking money and going off on holiday with it, or something, it would be a clear open-and-shut case, and you'd go to the police, I presume…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
—as they should. And some people will say there are too many, others will say there are not enough, and that's a debate everybody can have. So, you do have a responsibility to ensure that public funds are well used, are used properly, and used to deliver the…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
And public funds always come with strings—
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
But you are charged with the expenditure of public funds.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Allegations surrounding the Welsh Rugby Union: Evidence session with Sport Wales
Because what you said: you don't have any legislative role or anything like that.
