Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:48 pm on 17 October 2017.
Andrew RT Davies
Conservative
1:48,
17 October 2017
I have to say you do not use economic intelligence or input or output tables. I haven’t been able to find an academic, a businessman or woman—there is no-one who can support what you’ve just said, First Minister. If you look at the Scottish model, they have a dedicated unit at the University of Strathclyde that they established some years ago that informs Scottish Government policy about the output of the economy, about job creation, and, above all, about the support that the economy in Scotland needs. I am concerned at the flippancy of your answer, in particular when you look at the challenges that the Welsh economy faces. Will you reconsider the answer that you’ve just given? Because I can tell you that what the Welsh economy needs—when developing new policy and support for the Welsh economy, it needs sound data, good information and an understanding of how the economy works. And I point again to your assertion that you say, ‘yes’, when, in fact, compared to what Scotland do, with a dedicated unit at Strathclyde university, you have nothing of a comparable nature.
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