Rebecca Evans MS, Minister for Finance and Trefnydd
This was published under the 2016 to 2021 administration of the Welsh Government
Today the Welsh Government has published an update report on the progress we have made to evolve Welsh public sector procurement. This largely picks up from the report we published last March setting out the progress made to deliver the 2018 Procurement Written Statement and the First Minister's manifesto commitments, as well as outlining the journey that the procurement profession was on.
The journey has continued over the past year. However, as the profession has also had to adapt to the far reaching consequences of the UK’s departure from the EU and the Covid-19 pandemic, it is good to take a step back and see how far we have come and how much we have achieved together.
I would like to thank the procurement community across the Welsh public sector for the way it rose to the challenge of the pandemic, its response to the UK’s departure from the EU and for all of its hard work over recent years. The pandemic has demonstrated that delivery of effective, sustainable and often urgent procurement to provide essential works, goods and services has never been more important. I am proud of how much we have all achieved in the last year delivering, for example, essential lifesaving goods such as PPE and life improving goods such as visitor care home pods.
Against this backdrop, we are also working hard to collectively deliver against a number of progressive policy priorities such as decarbonisation, social value, community benefits, fair work, the circular economy and the foundational economy.
The key to delivering our achievements has been through collaborating with our stakeholders and partners. We have built on existing relationships and have also learnt from others; taking on feedback to produce the new 2021 Wales Procurement Policy Statement (WPPS) which we published earlier this month. The WPPS sets the strategic vision for public sector procurement in Wales and puts the Wellbeing of Future Generations principles at the heart of our procurement approach.
Continued collaboration will be key to the delivery of the Statement. As we consider the recommendations of the Future Generation’s Commissioner’s recent Section 20 review of Procurement, we are keen to examine further opportunities for building a stronger collaborative model for Welsh public procurement, and will be exploring how that could work with our partners.
I hope that you find the report informative and that it helps you understand the journey we are on, how far we have already travelled and what we still have to do.