, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Response to the UK Government Financial Statement
Through his statement, the Chancellor ignored all of this and instead prioritised tax cuts for the rich, unlimited bonuses for bankers, and protected the profits of big energy companies. It will have significant economic and social consequences and will cost…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Response to the UK Government Financial Statement
Diolch, Llywydd. Last week, the Chancellor published his financial statement—a significant package of measures that, in total, represents one of the most consequential, divisive and regressive sets of fiscal changes ever set out by any UK Government. The…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
Thank you.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
So, the majority of the engagement that we've had on the Bill has been through the UK Government Cabinet Office because that's where they've based themselves. I haven't personally had an awful lot of engagement with the Department for Business, Energy and…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
I hope it doesn't get to the point of being a matter of dispute and that we can just come to agreed solutions to the outstanding concerns, because we have had significant numbers of changes made to the approach so far, so there's a good track record, I think…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
There is a formal dispute mechanism now in place with the UK Government. I think that, as far as I'm aware, Northern Ireland is the only part that has yet taken anything through or started that formal dispute mechanism. We also have the new inter-ministerial…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
We hope it wouldn't need to be escalated to that point and that we can work to have a pragmatic response from the UK Government on these areas of outstanding concern, which, again, they don't have a practical impact as such, but they are important points of…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
Yes, I'm happy to agree to both of those.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
Again, it's the practical effect. We would see a benefit, obviously, in commencing at the same time, but it's the point of principle.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
Yes, I'm more than happy to commit to providing any information that the committee or the Senedd requires.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
Shall I just add, before you do, that this is an area where it's a point of principle for us, rather than envisaging there being major practical implications? It's about Welsh Ministers' powers, respecting devolution and so on.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
I'll ask Emma to come in on this one.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
So, as introduced, clause 70 of the Bill provides for the Minister of the Crown-only powers to amend the value thresholds in subsection 2, and these are the thresholds for publishing a contract change notice, and also the financial threshold in subsection 7…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
The WPPS is aimed, really, at influencing the behaviour of Welsh contracting authorities. So, it doesn't bind private utilities or bodies that are not devolved Welsh authorities. So, it's really about being a document that influences. So, in that sense, we…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
I can just run through the powers quickly. So, one is the power to add international agreements to the list in Schedule 9. Given the UK Government's close interest in international agreements, it's likely that we would have found ourselves having discussions…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
So, officials are currently considering the findings of the report, and are currently in discussions with their counterparts in UK Government, but I don't know if there's anything further we can add on that today.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
Yes. So, the starting point for the definition of a Welsh contracting authority is that which is in the Government of Wales Act 2006, but the definition within the UK Government's Bill goes wider than this, meaning that a greater number of contracting…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
Yes, so, as of the start of committee at least, there's not a UK Government Minister in place yet who's responsible for taking forward the Bill, but, as soon as there is, obviously I'd be keen to meet with them to outline and reinforce the outstanding areas…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
So, the UK Government is already planning a range of learning and development programmes for stakeholders. They range from the broadcast presentations, which give that high-level overview of the changes that will be coming, to more focused and interactive…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
So, I would definitely agree that we are looking at quite a fundamental shift in terms of mindsets, but it's a journey we've been on for some time in terms of trying to enable procurement professionals to think differently about procurement. I think that…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
I think they are ambitious, and of course things have been pushed back ever so slightly because of recent events. But I think that we are still confident that things will move ahead as planned in terms of the timetable. We also have to remember that there's…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
So, I don't think that there's anything in the Bill that would have a particular negative impact on us here in Wales. I think that it's important as well that we will undertake those impact assessments for the things that we introduce through regulations. I…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
Can you repeat the question, sorry?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
I also think, though, that that work that we've done in terms of interrogating the clauses then led directly on to the areas where we have the derogations. So, the Chair referred to the areas that we'd called out, if you like, in the Bill, and that's around…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Evidence Session with the Minister for Finance and Local Government - UK Procurement Bill Legislative Consent Memorandum
Just to confirm, really, that officials have considered every single clause, so they've done that work themselves in terms of interrogating every clause of the Bill, so it's not as if we've just accepted sections of the Bill without giving it deep…
