Agenda and minutes

1.1        The Chair Welcomed Members and members of the public to the meeting.

1.2     Apologies had been received from Ann Jones, for whom Vaughan Gething was substituting.

David Bentley, Head of Asset Management, Chartered Institute Public Finance Accountancy Property

2.1 The Chair welcomed David Bentley, Head of Asset Management, Chartered Institute Public Finance Accountancy (CIPFA) – Property.

2.2 Members questioned the witness.

Action points:

The Committee agreed to write to David Bentley with the following questions, which specifically focus on Asset Management in Wales:

·         The Welsh Government’s capital strategy, the Wales Infrastructure Investment Plan (WIIP), refers to asset management only in terms of recognising the need to make better use of the asset base.  In your view how should asset management in central government, and in the wider public sector, be linked into the WIIP in practice?

·         In your paper, referring to Welsh local government asset management plans you state that most of these make some reference to strategic or policy objectives, but these references must be real in practice.  In your experience, is it the case that such links are not real in practice, and if asset management is viewed as a support service in some quarters, as some of our evidence suggests, how can it be ensured that such strategic links are made more tangible?

·         In your paper in relation to ‘Lessons learnt from Wales’[pages 13-14]  you provide ten examples of where you have provided assistance to local authorities in relation to property management.  Were these all Welsh local authorities and how do these arrangements arise, for example does the authority contact you for assistance with a project?

FIN(4)-07-13 Paper 1 Letter from Gwenda Thomas Deputy Minister for Social Services

3.1 The Committee noted the correspondence from the Deputy Minister for Social Services on the financial implications of the Social Services Bill and agreed to respond to the Deputy Minister seeking clarity on a number of issues.

Item 5 and 8

5.1 The committee considered the evidence received on its inquiry into Asset Management.

6.1 The committee approved draft guidance to other committees on financial scrutiny.

7.1 The Committee considered the draft Terms of Reference on its forthcoming inquiry into Higher Education Funding and discussed methods of handling the inquiry.

8.1 The Committee discussed proposals for handling the Welsh Government’s draft budget 2014-2015.