Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru

Bore da, croeso. Good morning and welcome to this morning’s meeting of the Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee in the Senedd. The meeting is bilingual. Headsets are provided for simultaneous translation on channel 1 and sound amplification on channel 2. I suspect the participants won’t need it, but you can access translation by clicking on the globe icon on Zoom. No apologies for absence have been received. Do Members have any declarations of registrable interests they wish to share? No. Thank you.

In which case, we have a number of papers to note. The first of which is a letter from the Chief Executive and Clerk of the Senedd, written to us with further updates in response to our report on the scrutiny of accounts for 2022-23. This provides an update on the ways of working strategy and its allocated resources, the purpose of the medium-term resourcing framework, the MTFR, and a commitment to share it with the committee in line with the 2025-26 budget. The Senedd Commission will be appearing before us early in the autumn term for annual scrutiny of its report and accounts. So, Members, would you like to make any comments on the correspondence, or are you content to note it?

I'm content to note it. 

Content to note. Right, I’ll take that as collective contentment and move on.

So, our second paper to note is a letter from the gentleman to my left, the Auditor General for Wales, to the Chair of the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee, responding to their request for consideration of further Audit Wales scrutiny of rail services and the core Valley lines modernisation projects. We will be discussing this further in private session, but, auditor general, do you have any comments?

Nothing of note, Chair. The committee will probably recall that I spoke to this letter at our last meeting, and I think it’s on the agenda today for completeness. So, nothing further to add to what I said then.

Thank you. Members, do you have any comments?

We will be coming back to this, then.

We will. 

That's fine, thank you.

Okay, then, we’ll move on to our third paper to note. The chief executive of Digital Health and Care Wales has written to us to provide an updated response to our recommendation for a realistic plan for increasing its engagement with the social care sector. The chief executive refers us to their existing stakeholder engagement strategy and plan, which gathers feedback from partners including social care colleagues. Auditor general, would you like to comment?

I think it’s a reasonable response to the recommendation you’ve made, and just for the committee’s awareness, we, through our local audit work at DHCW, are keeping an eye on the effectiveness of their stakeholder engagement work. We hope to complete that work by the end of this calendar year, so if there’s anything of note for the committee, we can bring that then.

And Members, do you have any comments, or are you otherwise content to note the response?

Content to note. 

Content to note. Yes. Okay, we shall—

Sorry, Chair, if I can just add, on the second part of the response that relates to connecting care—the connecting care programme—the committee will see from the papers through the link in the response that there are some risks around that programme. Indeed, there are risks associated with lots of the programmes that DHCW are running. So, again, we have some work in hand to keep a close eye on the progress of those programmes as part of some wider work we’re doing on digital transformation across the NHS.

Chair, I just wanted to ask a question, then, please. At the end of it, it says that there will be

'a detailed update which outlines progress against our Engagement Strategy. Future updates will be provided every six months.'

So, if the board papers were in May 2024, the next one will be in November this year, then, I'm assuming. The update that you're going to receive, will that be towards the end of the year?

I think that relates to their cycle with the committee, but I assume you're right. 

Fine. Okay, that's fine. Thanks. Thank you, Chair. I'm content. 

Okay, thank you. If there are no further comments—I can't see any other indications—we'll move on to our fourth paper to note, another letter from the Auditor General for Wales. He has written to us providing a brief factual update based on evidence that Audit Wales has reviewed in relation to the Welsh Government's support for TVR Automotive Ltd. The auditor general's letter is not intended to be an exhaustive account of events or of necessarily all costs incurred by the Welsh Government in relation to this. Instead, it focuses on the decisions and actions of the Welsh Government in relation to these matters. Audit Wales has not undertaken a full value-for-money study of the impact of the Welsh Government's support or examined TVRA's actions and potential sources of private finance. There will be an opportunity to discuss the contents of this letter in our private session, to assist us in agreeing any next steps and to consider whether these issues merit further scrutiny next term. Again, auditor general, do you have any comments?

As we're coming back to it later in the meeting, Chair, unless Members have any questions at this stage, there's nothing further to add from me. 

Members, do you have any comments at this stage?

I'm happy to address it later, Chair. 

Okay. In that case, we shall note that letter. 

That brings us, therefore, nicely ahead of schedule, to the next item on our agenda. But before we move to that, I propose, in accordance with Standing Order 17.42(ix), that the committee resolves to meet in private for the remainder of today's meeting. Are all Members content?

Yes, content. 

I note that all Members are content. I'd be grateful if we could be taken into private session.