Jane Hutt, Minister for Social Justice
In October last year I committed to carry out a review of the bodies subject to the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
Since the Act was passed into law, the public sector landscape in Wales has changed and it is right that we assess whether additional public bodies warrant designation to be subject to the Act. The decision to conduct a review has been informed by the work of the Auditor General for Wales in their report, So, what’s different? Findings from the Auditor General’s Sustainable Development Principle Examinations (May 2020) and the Public Accounts Committee (5th Senedd) report, Delivering for Future Generations – the story so far (March 2021).
I am today launching a consultation seeking views on extending the well-being duty (part 2) of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 to eight additional public bodies.
The consultation sets out the criteria by which bodies have been selected to be subject to the Act’s well-being duty. This retains the criteria used to establish the 44 bodies currently listed in the Act.
Our proposals to extend the well-being duty in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 complement our Programme for Government commitment to put social partnership on a statutory footing through the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Bill. The Bill, introduced on 7 June, will place social partnership at the heart of sustainable development, and the list of bodies proposed to be subject to the statutory social partnership duty contained in the Bill are defined by the list of bodies subject to the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
We will be working with the bodies, the Future Generations Commissioner and Audit Wales to understand the potential cost implications of these proposals, and to find ways to share the learning from those who have been subject to the Act since 2016.
The consultation on the additional bodies will run from 14 July to 20 October 2022. I encourage anyone with an interest in the well-being of Wales to respond and I look forward to considering the responses.
The consultation is available at: https://gov.wales/additional-public-bodies-subject-well-being-duty-part-2-well-being-future-generations-wales-act.