Concise Minutes - Public Accounts Committee

Meeting Venue:

Committee Room 3 - Senedd

Meeting date: Monday, 22 May 2017

Meeting time: 14.03 - 16.35
This meeting can be viewed
on Senedd TV at:
http://senedd.tv/en/4109

Attendance

Category	Names
Assembly Members:	Nick Ramsay AM (Chair) Mohammad Asghar (Oscar) AM Neil Hamilton AM Mike Hedges AM Neil McEvoy AM
Witnesses:	Kevin Ingram, Natural Resources Wales Dr Emyr Roberts, Natural Resources Wales David Sulman, UK Forest Products Association
Wales Audit Office:	Huw Vaughan Thomas – Auditor General for Wales Matthew Mortlock Dave Rees
Committee Staff:	Huw Vaughan Thomas Matthew Mortlock Dave Rees Fay Bowen (Clerk) Claire Griffiths (Deputy Clerk) Katie Wyatt (Legal Adviser)

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Transcript

View the meeting transcript (PDF 999KB) View as HTML (999KB)

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1 Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest

1.1 The Chair welcomed the Members to the Committee.

1.2 Apologies were received from Mohammad Asghar AM and Lee Waters AM. There were no substitutes. Rhianon Passmore AM was absent.

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2 Paper(s) to note

2.1 The papers were noted.

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2.1 Reforming local government: Resilient and renewed - Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government (10 May 2017)

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3 Natural Resources Wales: Annual Report and Accounts 2015-16: Evidence Session 2

3.1 The Committee took evidence from David Sulman, Executive Director, UK Forest Products Association as part of their inquiry into the scrutiny of Natural Resources Wales Annual Report and Accounts 2015-16.

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4 Motion under Standing Order 17.42 to resolve to exclude the public from the meeting for the following business:

4.1 The motion was agreed.

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5 Natural Resources Wales: Annual Report and Accounts 2015-16 - Consideration of evidence received

5.1 Members considered the evidence received from Mr Sulman.

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6 Natural Resources Wales: Evidence Session 3

6.1 Members scrutinised Dr Emyr Roberts, Chief Executive and Kevin Ingram, Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Services at Natural Resources Wales on NRW’s Annual Report and Accounts 2015-16.

6.2 Members scrutinised Dr Emyr Roberts and Kevin Ingram on the Auditor General for Wales’ report on the Development of Natural Resources Wales which was published in February 2016.

6.3 Dr Roberts agreed to send an update on NRW’s performance indicators and include a year-on-year comparison to enable the Committee to assess trends in performance.

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7 Natural Resources Wales: Consideration of evidence received

7.1 Members discussed the evidence received on the scrutiny of Natural Resources Wales Annual Report and Accounts 2015-16. Some Members were not satisfied with the approach taken by NRW to the 2012 tender exercise and noted there was a conflict of evidence from the two sets of witnesses around this issue. The Clerks were asked to explore further with Mr Sulman what state the timber market was in and what he felt NRW could have done to widen the scope of the tender.

7.2 Members noted that the draft report will be available for their consideration in Committee on 5 June.

7.3 Members considered the evidence received from Natural Resources Wales following the scrutiny of the Auditor General for Wales’ report. It was agreed that the Chair will write to the Chair of the Climate Change, Environmental and Rural Affairs Committee with issues the Committee wish to be included in that Committee’s annual scrutiny of NRW in the autumn term.

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