, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Just picking up slightly on the elements of the Bill that are the requirements on Estyn, have you been engaging with Estyn? And what resource does the Welsh Government anticipate will be required to meet those aspirations of the Bill?
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Mike, did you want to come back, sorry?
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
So, I think the Minister will write to us with some of that detail, so that will be great. A couple of last points from me unless one of my colleagues wants to come in. From the point of view of a lecturer in one of our universities or further education…
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Certainly, yes. Thank you. Can we unmute Zenny, please? Thank you.
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Thank you. Mike.
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
What would be really useful, when you do write to us with that information, is to give us the breakdown of what would be costs anyway and what would be additional costs, so that we have that split out so that we know exactly how the land lies.
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
I think, because of time, if you could write to us with those tabulated out, unless Peter—.
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Yes, we'll make a note of that; that would be great. I'll bring Peter in, if I may.
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Yes, we'd be very interested, obviously from comments, to hear that. I'll pass over to Rhianon.
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
So, do you think, at that widest range—say it did happen—would it still be value for money to do it?
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
I think Peter wants to come in.
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
And say that there was a significant change in your estimates, would you be willing to come back—would you be letting us know that and coming back to explain that to us?
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
So, which ones have you been prudent in and which ones are you thinking there might be a bit of flex in there?
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
So, as part of that, then, which parts of the breakdown of the costs will, do you think, have the variance of 30 per cent and which won't?
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Okay, thank you. In the RIA, it talks about a plus or minus 30 per cent variance, and looking at that, that's a wide—very wide—variance of figures that could be considered about thinking about the costs. This is due to certain key cost associations with the…
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Okay. The RIA doesn't include any cost savings but does note that bringing together certain Welsh Government and Higher Education Funding Council for Wales teams has the potential to create synergies and savings. Can you provide any more information on the…
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
You're talking about early examples and soon. Do you have an idea of when, timescale-wise, that you'd want to be seeing that?
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Thank you very much. The RIA notes that it's not possible to quantify the benefits of the legislation as they do not lend themselves well to quantification and are more likely to be realised in the medium to long term. Given this, what specific success…
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
I'd like to understand the high-level costs and objectives of the Bill. What are the outcomes for the Welsh Government, what you hope to deliver? The Bill has a net cost of £45 million over a 10-year appraisal period. The regulatory impact assessment…
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Excellent. Thank you very much. Given that we've only got an hour, I want to move on to questions, and we will take turns to go through that. But it's good to see you here this morning.
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
It's lovely to see the Minister here with us. Thank you for joining us this morning, and your officers with you as well. Would you be able to state your names for the record, please?
, Finance Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Moving on, therefore, to item 3.
, Finance Committee
Papers to note
So, if we can note those, that would be great.
, Finance Committee
Papers to note
We'll check that with the Minister. Thank you very much.
, Finance Committee
Papers to note
I don't believe so. It's the finance Minister's quadrilateral, so we only get to hear about it and we feed it through the finance Minister.
