Dr. Paul Davis:

Deputy Lawlor raised a couple of issues with regard to the situation in other jurisdictions, particularly Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. There are two public procurement regulations in the UK which are applicable in Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland is seen as a separate entity. A key item of interest within that is the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, which introduced a statutory requirement for public bodies to have regard to economic, social and environmental well-being in connection with public service contracts. It legislated for a particular social clause. We can have a debate as to whether that is good or bad, but it is a particular approach that we have not taken. It may be an issue for us.

Value Wales has developed a community benefits measurement tool. A report stated that this sophisticated approach is seen as a leader within the UK in assessing outcomes and has been used to track six projects. It showed that these contracts, valued at £146 million, resulted in £56 million in salaries for Welsh citizens and £68 million spent with Wales-based suppliers. In addition, the six projects created 44 apprenticeships and supported work for 140 disadvantaged people, as well as creating or protecting 2,200 jobs. John McClelland, who has carried out reviews in Scotland and Wales, commented in 2012 in the review of public procurement in Wales that over the past two years the community benefits approach had been applied to contracts worth a total of £3.4 billion.

There are a further 50 projects in the pipeline and it is estimated that these will deliver benefits similar to those associated with the first six. In terms of scope, what he meant was the creation and protection of an additional 16,000 jobs in Wales. There are approaches which are being directly targeted in other jurisdictions in the context of job creation. The €6 billion spent in Ireland could be the equivalent of 24,000 jobs, approximately one quarter of the number identified in An Action Plan for Jobs. It can, therefore, have a specific impact if targeted in a specific fashion.