Agenda item 7: Social Partnership Council statements

Decision required

Social Partnership Council (SPC) members are asked to note the circumstances in which the SPC could issue statements.

1. The paper sets out the considerations around the SPC making statements. 

2. Legally, the SPC is only able to do things it is empowered to do by statute which, in practice, means it can only do things the Social Partnership and Public Procurement Act 2023 (“the Act”) allows it to.
    
3. Section 1 of the Act sets out the SPC’s functions as follows:

“(2)  For the purposes of improving economic, environmental, social, and cultural well-being (including by improving public services) in Wales, the SPC may provide information and advice to the Welsh Ministers in relation to—

(a)  the social partnership duties which this Act imposes on public bodies and the Welsh Ministers (see Part 2);

(b)  the pursuit of the "A prosperous Wales" well-being goal by public bodies when carrying out sustainable development under the WFGA 2015 (see Part 2);

(c)  the functions conferred on contracting authorities and the Welsh Ministers under Part 3 (socially responsible public procurement).

(3)  The SPC may provide information or advice on a matter referred to in subsection (2) of its own accord or in response to a request made by the Welsh Ministers.

(4)  Where the SPC receives a request from the Welsh Ministers under subsection (3), the SPC must provide the information or advice as soon as reasonably practicable.”

4. Although the Act does not directly confer a power to make public statements on the SPC, section 13 does enable the SPC to “do anything which is calculated to facilitate, or which is conducive or incidental to, the exercise of its functions or the functions of a subgroup”. This means that the SPC can publish a statement about providing advice to the Welsh Ministers under the Act but only where doing so is “calculated to facilitate” or “conducive or incidental to” its function of providing that advice.
    
5. The content of each statement would have to be assessed individually to determine whether it fell within the scope of section 13.  
    
6. The Act establishes the SPC as a statutory advisory body to the Welsh Ministers rather than a public facing body.   As the SPC’s advice is normally discussed at its meetings at which Ministers are present and therefore contained in the published minutes, a standalone statement should only be issued where the particular circumstances warrant it. 
    
7. Section 2(5) of the Act is clear that any function of the SPC is only exercisable by the members acting jointly. Therefore, publishing a statement (which would be an exercise of the function in section 13) could only be done by the SPC as a whole. Therefore, all members need to agree both that a statement should be issued and the wording of that statement before it could be issued.

8. In conclusion, it is possible for the SPC to issue a statement of their advice to the Ministers on the matters outlined in the Act but only in the limited circumstances outlined in paragraph 4. Also, to be lawful, the statement would need to be agreed by all SPC members. 

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

The content of this paper does not raise any significant EDI issues.