, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 2
I'll finish on this question. I think the other questions that are down in my list are factual ones that could be answered in writing, if you're happy with that, Chair. The question that probably does need a proper answer is the £9 million write-off relating…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 2
I'd like you to go away and think about it, because it's very easy to be technical and say, 'We are ahead of ABC Plumbing; we should have that £50,000', without giving any thought to the consequences. I think I'd like you to go away and think about the…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 2
But, even if we are ahead, let's talk about £50,000, which to most of us on this side of the room is quite a large sum of money. To a number of small businesses, £50,000 is a large sum of money. To the Welsh Government, investing, it isn't. If you're ahead of…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 2
Can I ask I think an incredibly difficult question, so I accept that you will feel that? How do you balance getting money back for the Welsh public purse with the effect of you having the money and small companies who have done work for that organisation, who…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 2
Yes. On losses and write-offs, I'm going to put this question in two parts. You do have write-offs, how do you ensure that you're aware at the earliest opportunity, and how much do you think is a reasonable amount? I mean, it's easy to have zero write-offs…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 2
Yes, mine. I said, if you take the questions, it will make it easier to control what's happening.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 2
It'll be easier to control it that way.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 2
You take them, if you want to, Chair.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 2
Sorry, Chair. I'm just telling you things you know, but perhaps others in the room don't. We've got 28 days to declare it. Once we declare it, it will be on the website within 48 hours, normally within 24 hours, and not unusually, within three hours.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 2
As you know, Chair, we've got 28 days to update ours, in which case, we end up in serious trouble if we don't. I'm not sure why civil servants can't work to the same rules as we do, and ours is much more complicated. I'm not sure anybody really wants to know…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 1
Okay. Thank you very much.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 1
I think it's probably on behalf of citizens who are interested citizens, and probably more for journalists and academic researchers rather than Mr and Mrs Joe Bloggs. But the final question from me is: in the 2021-22 accounts, you note that Jeff Farrar, one…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 1
I can give you one now. You think it's a high risk, but you hope it's not going to occur, of actually being a denial-of-service attack, for example. That would bring the whole organisation to a halt, wouldn't it, but you hope that it's not going to happen, so…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 1
And moving on to the agendas and summary of issues from the audit and risk assurance committee, are those going to be on that website as well, and easy to find?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 1
Can I say I think it's really important that these papers go on? As a general comment, I think your website is opaque, and I think that—. It's nothing to do with the public accounts committee, but, for the general public, being able to go in there and find…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 1
Can I ask a question to the board and audit and assurance committee? The first question is—and I'm quite happy to be corrected—our review last week, and a lot can happen in a week, shows the latest board papers available on the Welsh Government website are…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 1
Thank you. That was the point I was getting to. Perhaps I should have asked that question in the beginning. [Laughter.]
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 1
No, it's just that something I feel quite strongly about is that the Welsh Government—perhaps I'll phrase it slightly differently to the way I was going to—plays along with rules that can be extended and changed when it affects them, but incredibly strict to…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 1
—although you have to include the part that you pay into local government through the aggregated external funding. No, local government is under very strict instructions that these things have to be produced by a certain date. If you're saying, for all sorts…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 1
Yes, but local government is not part of your aggregated accounts, as far as I'm aware—
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Governments Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 - Evidence Session - part 1
Just carrying on from this point, would you accept local government having the same leeway as you?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
Okay. Thank you.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
I'll stop there, which will probably please you. [Laughter.] If I can ask one very simple question: the European system of accounts has had an effect on whether money counts as capital or revenue within R&D budgets. It's a relatively small sum; it's not…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
We expect everybody apart from Powys to overspend and there are certain reasons for that, like it doesn't have a district general hospital within its area. Two points: the point I was trying to get across is, if the health MEG is exceeded, then the general…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2022-23
Yes, but, if their MEG gets exceeded by health board overspends, which is unlikely, because they hold a fairly large—I call it a health reserve, you call it unallocated expenditure within health—managed expenditure group. That's a matter of semantics there…
