UK Open Government National Action Plan 2019 to 2021: Welsh Government end of term self-assessment report

The 4th UK Open Government National Action Plan was published in May 2019. The plan sets out the ambitions of the UK government to be more open, transparent, participatory, inclusive and accountable and contains a series of commitment milestones to demonstrate this ambition. Simultaneously, Welsh Government and the other devolved governments each published their specific commitments, which are part of the UK plan.

Open Government National Action Plans are produced every 2 years. At the end of each 2-year period, governments are required to publish an end of term self–assessment that records the progress that has been made. The following records the progress made on the Welsh Government’s commitments between 2019 and 2021.

Process summary

Welsh Government officials liaised with colleagues from UK Cabinet Office and the other devolved governments during the development of the commitments, sharing knowledge and best practice. This liaison continued throughout the lifecycle of the plan.

In developing this set of Welsh Government commitments, officials have engaged with civil society and active citizens, via the Open Government Network Wales, to identify areas in need of greater openness and transparency. We aim to continue and build upon this collaborative approach during the development of future action plans.

Departments from within Welsh Government, who are responsible for delivery of each of the commitments, have provided updates on the progress made over the last 2 years.

Development of commitments

When developing the action plan, citizens told us that information about Welsh Government, how it works and its business activities is hard to find. They also told us that we should find better ways to engage with them, including increasing our use of digital platforms. This resulted in the development of commitments around engagement, access to information and open data.

Commitments relating to budgets, grants and finance were also developed after we were asked for more clarity on how Welsh Government collects and spends taxes. Another commitment has enabled information about law made in Wales to be more accessible.

A summary of progress

Over the duration of the action plan, good progress has been made, with two thirds of the commitments being completed (where all or the majority of the component milestones have been completed). Two commitments have been assessed as ‘ongoing’, in these cases either the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed progress or the milestones have a longer lifespan than the 2-year duration of the plan.

Further details on the progress made against each of the commitments and their milestones are provided in Annex 1.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

During the pandemic, it was necessary to redeploy resources to help us respond to the many challenges that COVID-19 posed and this has had an inevitable impact upon our ability to deliver some of the commitments that we published in 2019. In some cases, progress has been slowed or delayed, whereas for a small number of commitments work has had to be temporarily suspended. Where this has been the case, the commitments will be revisited at a future date when circumstances permit.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how important it is for governments to be open and transparent with their citizens. Over the past 18 months, there have been numerous examples of Welsh Government doing this. These include ministers holding regular televised press conferences to keep people informed, publishing the technical advice on which decisions are being made, up to date data being made available to everyone, as well as information being shared between organisations to ensure citizens receive the support they need.

To involve and increase the involvement of, and engagement and collaboration with a wider range of stakeholders.

Lead department(s)

Organisational Development and Engagement Division

Others involved in implementation to date

The Sustainable Futures Division, the Prosperous Futures Division, Cadw, the Commercial and Procurement Directorate and the Organisational Development and Engagement Division.

Timeline

March 2019 - March 2021

Overall commitment status

Completed

Overall progress against commitment

Staff have been provided with the resources and training opportunities to equip them with the skills and knowledge to help them improve how we communicate and engage. A number of case studies have shown new and innovative ways in which we have been working collaboratively with communities, including the affective use of new communications technologies. The overall status of the commitment is assessed as completed, as the majority of the milestones have been delivered.

Milestone 1: Continue to work and engage with civil society within Wales

Update on progress against milestones/activities

Welsh Government recognises the importance of engagement and seeks to improve how we engage, consult and work with citizens, communities and stakeholders. Our engagement development has included equipping staff with the necessary skills and resources to help them to better engage with citizens, to encourage engagement with a wider variety of stakeholders, to embrace new technologies such as the use of social media platforms and further embedding The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 in the work that we do.

Since the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act became law, we have made good progress on embedding its 5 ways of working, to ensure that citizens are placed at the centre of what we do. Although progress has been made, we are keen to work with citizens and civil society groups to help us improve. A good example of this ambition was the well - attended ‘Future Generations xChange’ Civil Service event held in January 2020. The event explored topics such as where we are delivering well against the 5 ways of working, where the barriers are and how we can work together to remove them. Civil society representatives spoke about and ran a series of workshops to demonstrate to Welsh Government and other public bodies how much more can be achieved, by embedding the 5 ways of working.

The Deputy Minister and Chief Whip gave a commitment to explore the potential establishment of a forum to support Welsh Government in its implementation of the Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act. Two stakeholder workshops have been held, which considered possible solutions, including whether existing forums and groups could be utilised. A final workshop to develop the solution will be arranged as soon as COVID-19 working arrangements allow.

It is important that Welsh citizens can have an opportunity to contribute to UK government policy that affects their lives. In 2019, Welsh Government brought together a group of civil society representatives from the voluntary sector, private sector and public sector in order to discuss, gather requirements and to review Wales’ contribution to the UK government’s Voluntary National Review (VNR). The Wales Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Working group also considered and provided content to a supplementary report on Wales’ contribution to the Global Goals, focusing on ‘Wales’ SDGs Story’ that was published alongside the UK VNR.

In March 2020, Welsh Government in partnership with the Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) delivered "The Future is Now" learning event in Berlin. The main purpose of the event was to demonstrate action taken under SDG 17 – Partnerships for the SDGs. The event provided a unique opportunity to gain insights into a variety of innovative and integrated approaches to achieving the SDGs taken by Wales and Germany. Civil society representatives and community groups, alongside researchers and scientists, politicians and policy makers, businesses and other professionals shared practical examples of innovative projects between different organisations in Wales, Germany and Europe. The Chief Executive of the Wales Council for Voluntary Action, alongside the Executive Director from Germany's Maecenata Foundation, spoke about the role of civil society in creating new ideas and bringing people together and about the challenges of engaging citizens and grassroots organisations.

We have also utilised our website to improve engagement. A good example has been the use of our Digital and Data Blog to work with citizens, communities and stakeholders during the development of the Digital strategy for Wales. Current open consultations are published on our website, alongside information about the each consultation and instructions about how to respond.

Status: Ongoing

Milestone 2: Use different methods to engage and collaborate with communities to improve prosperity in the South Wales valleys

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The Valleys Taskforce was a manifesto commitment for the last term of government that officially ended in March 2021. Internal and external engagement shaped its work. Networks of more than 500 people were established through direct involvement with them and many more were reached via the cascading of information to local networks. These relationships proved to be critical and enabled Valleys stakeholders to collaborate, particularly when aspiring to deliver long-term, sustainable change.

Before we embarked on any engagement activity, we investigated some of our previous engagement programmes, in order to assess whether there were any insights that could inform our future engagement work.

To help us engage more effectively we commissioned Arad Research (a Cardiff-based independent research company) to work with us in the development of an engagement plan. During this development, a number of meetings, workshops and online consultations were undertaken.

520 individuals took part in face - to - face engagement exercises, which included:

• open public workshops – where a general discussion ensued
• themed public workshops– where specific topics were discussed
• the establishment of subject and community specific focus groups
• 6 engagement sessions with Welsh Government staff who live and/or work in the Welsh Valleys.

The above events were well attended by local communities, Welsh Ministers, Senedd Members, Welsh Government staff, representatives from local authorities and third sector organisations.

A further 777 citizens shared their views via an online survey.

Using the findings from this research, we finalised our Engagement Plan, which helped to support the delivery of the project.

We developed an informative communications campaign, with the objectives of fully engaging with Valleys communities, to raise the profile of the Valleys Taskforce, to report upon progress and to demonstrate the impact that the Taskforce has had on the South Wales Valleys.

During 2018-2019 we developed a number of collaborative community projects such as the "Play me I'm yours" piano event and the creation of the ‘Valleys’ song in collaboration with local artist Kizzy Crawford and over 200 children from the South Wales Valleys. We also promoted the events and the work of the Taskforce through organic social media.

During 2019-2020, we promoted Taskforce announcements around its priority areas and associated events by using organic social media. This activity included: ‘Our Valleys’ & Transport for Wales public engagement events, ‘Our Valleys, Your Business’ engagement events, the Empty Homes Grants programme, ‘Pitch it Valleys’ event, Discovery Gateway funding announcements, the Valleys photo challenge and pride-based posts.

Status: Completed

Milestone 3: Pilot new approaches to stakeholder management, utilising digital engagement and collaboration tools to support the work of the taskforce

Update on progress against milestones/activities

A consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic was that we were no longer able to engage with communities and stakeholders as we had done previously and new approaches were required. One methodology that we adopted was to utilise communications technology such as Skype and Microsoft Teams in order to continue the Taskforce’s engagement. The adoption of this technology enabled us to quickly adapt our programme to support smaller Valleys towns to access funding and to support local businesses who were adversely affected by the pandemic.

By utilising social media and digital platforms, we were able to continue with our engagement activities. We worked with colleagues in our communications team to promote our key messages through funded, regionally targeted social media programmes. The Hwb digital platform was utilised to engage and communicate with schools. We also developed a series of films using skype footage of interviews with ministers, grant beneficiaries and critical stakeholders. These films were then shared with all of our stakeholders.

A Facebook campaign exceeded expectations by achieving 2,960 responses to a questionnaire, illustrating the impact that the Valleys Taskforce has had on the region. Enhanced content on Facebook and Instagram helped to spread awareness of our work to a broad spectrum of communities throughout the Valleys area.

Case studies have shown the positive impact that the Taskforce's initiatives have had, particularly the provision of direct support to local communities and citizens.

During this time, activity on our social media platforms was significant. User statistics include:

• 1,257,434 combined reach on @talkvalleys social media accounts.
• 19,671 visits to campaign landing page and questionnaire page throughout the paid campaign period (March 2021).
• 2,960 responses to the pride questionnaire throughout March 2021.

Status: Completed

Milestone 4: Identify and increase take up of digital tools and platforms to enable improved engagement

Update on progress against milestones/activities

A project to investigate if and how digital tools can help to improve the ways that we engage with citizens has been established. The scope of the project is wide ranging and recognises that digital systems are a component within a larger programme of improvements to how we engage.

Discussions have been held with a number of national and local governments who have developed digital engagement systems, including the Scottish Government, The Consortium of Scottish Local authorities (COSLA) and Edmonton Council, Canada. We have also engaged with organisations such as the Democratic Society, Electoral Reform and Nesta to gather further insight. Topics of our discussions have included how citizens interact with the systems, usage statistics, requirements gathering and technical specifications.

Another area of investigation has been an evaluation of the digital channels that we currently use (such as social media) and whether they could be further utilised to improve our engagement activities.

The project is still in the discovery phase and is ongoing.

Status: Ongoing

Milestone 5: Develop a toolkit for officials to help them engage and involve the public and organisations in policy making and delivery

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The toolkit comprises a package of guidance, documentation, access to online content and training, which is designed to equip staff with the necessary skills to embed engagement in the policy work that they do.

A number of Welsh Government teams are available to provide advice, guidance and support to staff in their engagement and policy-making activities. Two such teams are the Futures and Integrated Policy team, who help staff to integrate the engagement principles enshrined in the Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 into their policy work and the Policy Support Unit who provide engagement advice for policy developers.

Staff are encouraged to follow the guidance in Participation Cymru’s ‘National Principles for Public Engagement’. They also have access to a large volume of engagement advice on the Welsh Government’s website and to internal publications such as ‘General, Policy and Legislation Consultation Guidance for Staff 2020’ and ‘A Guide to Successful Stakeholder Engagement 2018’. Guidance has also been developed to review and rationalise the number of and the procedures of existing reference/stakeholder advisory groups.

Resources from other non-Welsh Government organisations are also utilised, this includes access to a range of TED talk videos on subjects such as communication techniques, diversity and accessibility. Partnerships have been developed with organisations such as the Government Digital Service (GDS) who have provided training courses and video presentations on engagement, collaborative working, requirements gathering and User–centred design (UXD).

An extensive portfolio of training opportunities covering many areas of effective engagement is available to all staff and includes courses in co-production and involvement, effective communications, Agile techniques and policy skills, etc.

Status: Completed

Milestone 6: Develop a package of development opportunities for officials to improve their engagement and involvement skills

Update on progress against milestones/activities

In 2019 after extensive user research, collaboration and user testing, Welsh Government introduced a new online training resource called ‘Learning Lab’. Learning Lab is a secure interactive resource for staff that provides access to internal and external training content including:

• online courses
• discussion forums for different subject areas
• evaluations
• links to videos
• face to face training
• coaching and mentoring
• access to subject area networks
• individual learning records

The Learning Lab training is divided into 16 broad categories, some of which address collaboration and engagement training. Three such categories and a selection of associated courses are shown below:

Communication and Accessibility Category

Effective Communications and A guide to writing for Welsh Government communications

Collaboration and Involvement Category

Co-production and involvement Masterclass, Diversity, Inclusion and Unconscious Bias, Collaboration across Departments, Government and Beyond

Policy and Digital Category

Agile, Evidence Masterclass, Policy Context, Design and Implementation and User-Centred Design

The training content is designed to meet user needs and includes formal classroom training, online courses, instructional videos and TED talks etc.

Staff are also encouraged to come together and establish subject area networks. The networks are ‘chat rooms’ were questions can be posed, knowledge shared and links to sources such as other training or conferences etc. are provided. A popular network is the Policy Community network.

Welsh Government also provides a range of opportunities for staff placements where they can gain experience in other business areas. Placements include the Fast Streaming Programme and the Short Term Experience Programme (STEP), where staff are placed into roles in policy, legislation, corporate and operational delivery. Secondments outside of Welsh Government are also available. Less formal training includes work shadowing, mentoring and reverse mentoring.

Status: Completed

Milestone 7: Continue to develop Cadw’s engagement activities that connect communities with their local monuments and buildings

Update on progress against milestones/activities

In March 2020, Cadw (Welsh Government’s historic environment service) membership had risen to 44,093 members, an increase of 26% since January 2019. Cadw membership offers unlimited access to 130 sites across Wales. In addition, Cadw has 1,529 monument pass holders, which allows unlimited access to one specific site.

Cadw works in partnership with hundreds of communities, local community initiatives, local authorities, local museums and with other attractions on a series of Cadw-led events. This programme delivers c300 events across Wales. A good example of this work is our progressive programme to combine arts and heritage, which includes largescale arts events held throughout the year at several Cadw sites. Cadw also hosts commercial activities at its sites such as ice–skating, outdoor cinemas and concerts, which provide opportunities for communities to engage with their local monuments.

Every September, Cadw participates in ‘Open Doors’, the largest heritage festival in Wales. Heritage sites that are not normally accessible are opened to the public free of charge and thousands of other free events are organised across Wales to celebrate history and culture. Since 2013, the programme has been co-ordinated in-house by Cadw. The 2019 programme featured 245 venues and a programme of 1,158 events, with a total of 34,463 visitors participating.

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the cancellation of the 2020 ‘Open Doors’ festival and the closure of Cadw sites to the public. Although the sites were closed, Cadw developed a programme to enable ‘virtual’ access. The programme has included a series of interactive experiences across the following 10 key Cadw sites:

• Tintern Abbey
• Valle Crucis
• Blaenavon Ironworks
• Pentre Ifan
• Din Lligwy Hut Group
• Castell Coch
• Castell y Bere
• Harlech Castle
• Raglan Castle
• Bryn Celli Ddu

This online offering includes an interactive tour, videos, photographs and bilingual explanatory text, which combine to deliver a virtual Open Doors festival experience.

Other Cadw engagement activity includes:

• implementing a programme of Young Custodians at monuments across Wales
• projects with local schools and communities such as tapestry projects at Blaenavon and Dolbadarn Castle
• delivering outreach visits to schools
• providing resources and digital programmes to support the new school curriculum
• delivering Fusion Family Learning Sessions
• providing free educational activities at sites
• provision of a strong, award winning volunteering programme, which is currently being expanded
• supporting the Cultural Ambition Programme by being involved in its development and the hosting of trainees
• supporting the Welsh Heritage Schools Initiative

Status: Completed

To help users find the information about Welsh Government and how it operates.

Lead department(s)

Corporate Digital Team

Others involved in implementation to date

Digital, Data and Technology Directorate, Commercial and Procurement Directorate, Knowledge and Analytical Services and Data Cymru

Timeline

March 2019 - March 2021

Overall commitment status

Completed

Overall progress against commitment

Six of the 7 milestones within this commitment have been completed within the 2-year lifecycle of the plan. Work on developing an open data catalogue has been temporarily suspended, due to the prioritisation of resources to COVID-19 related work. The overall assessment for this commitment is completed.

Milestone 1: Continue to populate Open Government pages on the Welsh Government website

Update on progress against milestones/activities

During the past 2 years, the Welsh Government website has been redeveloped in order to make information easier to find both visually and through enhanced searching functionality.

A new web page entitled ‘Open Government and transparency’ brings together information about Welsh Government openness and transparency and provides links to associated documents and information.

The search functionality enables specific searching to be undertaken, for instance if ‘Open Government National Action Plan’ is entered as a search term, a list (with links) of all of the published action plan documentation is returned.

Work to populate the Open Government and transparency pages with more content is ongoing.

Status: Completed

Milestone 2: Produce and publish details of areas covered by senior civil servants and the ministerial portfolios that they support

Update on progress against milestones/activities

In November 2021, the latest version of the Welsh Government organisation chart was published on the Welsh Government website. The organogram shows the First Minister of Wales, the Ministers of the Cabinet, the Deputy Ministers and the Civil Service structure.

The Civil Service component of the chart shows the Permanent Secretary leading the following 5 departments:

• Permanent Secretary’s Group
• Office of the First Minister Group
• Health and Social Services Group
• Economy, Skills and Natural Resources Group
• Education and Public Services Group

Each Department comprises a number of divisions, each of which is headed by a Director General. Details of the Permanent Secretary, the director generals and their divisional directors are shown on the organogram.

The organogram is updated to reflect changes within Welsh Government and/or in ministerial portfolio responsibilities as required.

Biographies and responsibilities of the Cabinet members and ministers are shown on a separate web page.

Status: Completed

Milestone 3: Make information about how and why we use personal data available by ensuring Welsh Government privacy notices are published openly and are easily accessible

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The Welsh Government privacy notice is available on our website. The notice provides a detailed and comprehensive explanation of how citizen’s information is managed when they interact with Welsh Government. The text also includes links to associated information.

The website search functionality enables users to search for other Welsh Government privacy notices. The returned information from the search request displays an extensive list (with links) to other Welsh Government privacy notices.

Status: Completed

Milestone 4: Openly publish a list of data sharing agreements relating to statistics and research

Update on progress against milestones/activities

A list of the current Welsh Government data sharing agreements relating to statistics and research was published on 19 October 2021.

The list is dynamic and will be updated with information about new data shares and data sharing agreements.

Status: Completed

Milestone 5: Develop pages explaining how government works in Wales and its relationships with UK government and local government

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The ‘Government administration’ web page provides a large amount of information about government in Wales. This information includes interaction with ministers, complaints procedures, ministerial and Civil Service codes, and information about committees and the Programme for Government, etc.

Status: Completed

Milestone 6: Develop pages to help users understand how we procure goods and services and help them find the relevant information

Update on progress against milestones/activities

A new web page entitled ‘Public sector procurement’ brings together procurement information and provides links to associated documents and information.

As part of this project, the Commercial Procurement Information and Communications Technology Team have produced a web page entitled ‘How we manage our procurement of goods and services’. The page provides information about how Welsh Government procures goods and services and provides advice and guidance to suppliers about the procurement process.

Enhanced search functionality enables a user to search our website for more information, for instance a search using the word ‘Procurement’ returns over 600 items relating to Welsh Government procurement.

Status: Completed

Milestone 7: Investigate how we can help users find and access the open data they need

Update on progress against milestones/activities

All information (unless otherwise stated) published on Welsh Government websites is available as open data, meaning that it is free to access, use and share. Although we publish a significant amount of information and data online, it is hosted on different Welsh Government websites and is displayed on a large number of individual web pages, which can make it difficult to find.

In order to help to make our open data easier to find, we proposed that an accessible ‘Open Data Catalogue’ should be developed, enabling searches across multiple Welsh Government websites and web pages to be undertaken.

As a proof of concept and to test basic functionality, a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) for the catalogue has been developed. The MVP has been presented to Welsh Ministers, colleagues and to stakeholders. Three Open Data Workshops provided the opportunity to present the catalogue to a wider audience that included representatives from the public, private and third sectors as well as academia. Workshop attendees stated that the catalogue would be beneficial and endorsed proceeding with the project.

The next phase of the project was to make an online version of the MVP available to potential users to test and to submit suggestions for improvements. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the reallocation of resources and this work has had to be temporarily suspended. We plan to return to this project when circumstances permit.

Status: Ongoing

We will work collaboratively to develop guidance that encourages greater publication and use of open data across the Welsh public sector.

Lead department(s)

Digital, Data and Technology Directorate

Others involved in implementation to date

The Open Government Network, ODI-Cardiff, Data Cymru, local authorities, private sector organisations, third sector organisations and academia.

Timeline

March 2019 - March 2021

Overall commitment status

Ongoing

Overall progress against commitment

The first 2 milestones of this commitment have been completed and an early draft of the guidance has been produced, however, since March 2020 prioritisation of COVID-19 related work, has delayed further progress, therefore we have assessed the overall status as ongoing.

Milestone 1: Identify public sector publishers and potential users of open data in Wales

Update on progress against milestones/activities

Public sector publishers and potential users of open data were identified via discussions with colleagues, partners, stakeholders and professional bodies. They were also identified when they signed up to attend our Open Data events, which were publicised on our Digital & Data Blog.

A number of events were organised, some of which were developed and delivered in collaboration with Data Cymru. The events were publicised using professional networks, website blogs and social media and attracted a significant number of public sector Open Data publishers and potential users.

Status: Completed

Milestone 2: Engage with potential publishers and users of open data to agree content and coverage of the guidance

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The first phase of our engagement programme was the hosting of 3 of Open Data workshops.

The first of the workshops was held in Cardiff in November 2019, attracting over 50 representatives from the public, private and the third sectors. Attendees were asked for their opinions on whether open data guidance in Wales was required and if so, what information should the guidance contain. The consensus was that guidance was needed and a large number of content suggestions were tabled. A summary of the workshop was published on the Welsh Government Digital and Data Blog.

Subsequent open data workshops were held in Bangor and Swansea in March 2020, which were delivered in partnership with Data Cymru. Using the information captured at the initial workshop, an early draft of the Open Data Guidance was produced and shared at these workshops, with a view to consulting more widely once the draft had been further developed.

Status: Completed

Milestone 3: Develop draft guidance

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The objective of the draft guidance document is to present information in a clear and accessible way, whilst ensuring that it covers the user requirements that were captured during the open data workshops.

The current structure of the draft guidance is as follows:

• Who is this guide for?
• Why publish open data?
• Which datasets should be published openly?
• How to publish openly?
• Where should open data be published?
• Useful Information

A small number of colleagues within Welsh Government has assessed an early draft of the guidance and although there is still work to be done, the guidance has received a favourable response so far.

Unfortunately, work to finalise a consultation version of the guidance document was suspended due to resources being redeployed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. We plan to resume work on the guidance when circumstances permit.

Status: On hold

Milestone 4: Pilot the use of draft guidance

Update on progress against milestones/activities

Due to the redeployment of resources to COVID-19 related work, the pilot phase has been delayed.

Status: On hold

To provide greater clarity about the application and provision of Welsh Government grants.

Lead department(s)

Grants Centre of Excellence

Others involved in implementation to date

-

Timeline

March 2019 - March 2021

Overall commitment status

Ongoing

Overall progress against commitment

During the 2-year lifecycle of the plan, good progress has been made on all three of the milestones allocated to this commitment. However, the aspiration to publish more information regarding grants is a longer-term activity. The delivery of one of the milestones has been delayed due to the impact of the COVID–19 pandemic. This being the case, progress on this commitment has been assessed as Ongoing.

Milestone 1: Begin a process to compile, publish and maintain a central list of existing Welsh Government grants

Update on progress against milestones/activities

We have been considering how best to collate and publish a list of grant schemes on our website. As there are several hundred active grant schemes it is important to identify which schemes it would be most beneficial to publicise first and to ensure that the publication is accurate and managed to ensure the information supplied is up to date.

Whilst this work has been delayed due to the impact of the COVID pandemic, we are exploring a range of options to aid future publication.

Status: Ongoing

Milestone 2: Look to openly publish up to date information on Welsh Government grants

Update on progress against milestones/activities

We publish an annual report on the management of our grant aid programme, including information about how European grant money is spent. The next report will be published in the 2020-21 annual accounts in October 2021.

All payments over £25,000 are regularly published. In addition, other Welsh Government Divisions publish finance information on the grants that they administer, for example, Rural Grants and Payment Schemes, Local Transport Grants and Historic Environment Grants.

Options for a more co-ordinated approach involving the collation of all grant information across government are under review and will be updated shortly.

Status: Ongoing

Milestone 3: Coordinate guidance on Welsh Government grant schemes

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The ‘Welsh Government grants guidance’ web page provides information for citizens and organisations who are considering applying for a Welsh Government grant. This includes guidance on Welsh Government’s expectations of grant-funded bodies and third parties who manage grant schemes on our behalf as well as the ‘Minimum Standards for Grant Funding’.

Guidance on grants available to assist businesses and citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic has been published and it is proactively updated to address the evolving challenges presented by the pandemic.

In the longer - term, consideration will be given to developing a central source of information to signpost different industries or businesses to the various strands of grant support that may be available. In addition, options to build an internet page outlining all available current funding and details on how to apply will also be considered.

Status: Ongoing

The long-term aim is to create a well-organised Welsh statute book that will categorise the law by Codes on specific subjects. We are also working towards improving how existing legislation (and its supporting documentation) is published and organised. This will include informing and demonstrating how the law is made in Wales.

Lead department(s)

First Legislative Counsel and the Office of the Legislative Counsel

Others involved in implementation to date

The National Archives; the Law Commission of England and Wales and Westlaw UK

Timeline

December 2018 - December 2021

Overall commitment status

Completed

Overall progress against commitment

Four of the 5 milestones have been completed. The remaining milestone has been assessed as ongoing as it concerns a continuing programme to upload information into an online system. The overarching commitment has therefore been assessed as being completed.

Milestone 1: Place a new legal duty on the Counsel General to keep accessibility of Welsh Law under review and create new duties on the Welsh Ministers and the Counsel General to develop and implement an ongoing programme of improving accessibility of Welsh Law

Update on progress against milestones/activities

Part 1 of the Legislation (Wales) Act 2019 came into force on 11 September 2019. This means that there is an ongoing duty on the Counsel General to keep accessibility of Welsh law under review in force and this programme is ongoing.

It also means that a programme to improve accessibility of the law must be developed and made within 6 months of the election of the First Minister, following the general election in 2021.

Following the Senedd Cymru elections in May 2021, the Counsel General delivered a statement to the Senedd in July 2021, outlining the Legislative Programme to be laid before the Senedd in the autumn term.

Status: Completed

Milestone 2: Redevelop the Cyfraith Cymru / Law Wales website (which provides information about the constitutional settlement of Wales, and the law applicable in Wales)

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The redeveloped Cyfraith Cymru was launched on 28 June 2021 and is available in Welsh and English.

Status: Completed

Milestone 2: Redevelop the Cyfraith Cymru / Law Wales website (which provides information about the constitutional settlement of Wales, and the law applicable in Wales)

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The redeveloped Cyfraith Cymru was launched on 28 June 2021 and is available in Welsh and English.

Status: Completed

Milestone 3: Expand the information that is available on Cyfraith Cymru / Law Wales about the law made in Wales, including bilingual text and explanatory material

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The content of the new site is being updated as legislation is made and we have commissioned new content from both within Welsh Government and from external stakeholders.

Status: Completed

Milestone 4: Improve the accessibility to Wales law available via legislation.gov.uk by publishing and updating legislation bilingually and by developing new bilingual search tools to make Wales law easier to find

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The legislation.gov.uk online resource is administered by the National Archives (TNA). TNA are currently training Welsh Government staff to enable them to upload content. We anticipate that the bilingual updating of Welsh law will begin by the end of 2021.

A research project to develop enhanced search tool functionality has been initiated.

Status: Ongoing

Milestone 5: Improve information on the making of law, including publication of guidance on both the gov.wales website and on Cyfraith Cymru / Law Wales about how legislation is prepared and made

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The Legislation handbook on Assembly bills was updated and republished in May 2019.

Common legislative solutions: a guide to tackling recurring policy issues in legislation was published in October 2019.

Writing laws for Wales: guidance on drafting legislation was published in November 2019.

Parts 2 and 3 of the Legislation (Wales) Act 2019: Guidance for preparing Welsh legislation was published in May 2020.

Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020: Guidance on the legislative drafting implications of Part 2 was also published in May 2020.

Status: Completed

To raise awareness of Welsh Government finances, specifically about where the money comes from and how it is spent. Welsh Government is keen to engage with citizens to provide greater clarity and understanding about Welsh public finances.

Lead department(s)

PSG – Strategic Budgeting

Others involved in implementation to date

The Welsh Revenue Authority and PSG - Welsh Treasury

Timeline

March 2019 - March 2021

Overall commitment status

Completed

Overall progress against commitment

All of the milestones for this commitment have been completed.

Milestone 1: Identify ways to increase the understanding of Welsh Government budgets and the resources available to fund devolved public services

Update on progress against milestones/activities

A series of social media campaigns were undertaken between October 2019 and March 2020, beginning shortly before the publication of the draft Welsh Government budget 2020-2021 and finishing after the publication of the final budget. These campaigns highlighted the priority spending areas for the 2020-2021 budget and demonstrated the effectiveness of previous Welsh Government spend and its impact on public services in Wales. Digital content included media such as infographics, videos and animations, which were chosen in order to reach as wider audience as possible. The campaigns were cross cutting and featured case studies from Departments across Welsh Government. Information was published on Welsh Government, Departmental and Ministerial digital channels and was widely shared amongst stakeholders.

In advance of the draft budget for 2021-2022, a further awareness raising campaign was initiated, which included information on the role of the Minister for Finance, how money is raised and spent in Wales and the impact that this spending has on communities. Content was shared across Welsh Government, Welsh Treasury and stakeholder media channels.

We continued to publish an accessible Budget leaflet as part of the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 Draft Budget packages. The leaflet was designed to present key areas of Welsh Government’s budget using a ‘non-technical’ language, making it is easier to understand and enabling the information to be disseminated to wider audience including children and young people.

An important objective in our budget campaigns has been to include citizens and other stakeholders in discussions about our budgetary proposals. In 2019, the Minister for Finance undertook a series of visits to publically funded settings across Wales that provide services in each of our eight cross-cutting priority areas (early years, social care, housing, employability and skills, better mental health, decarbonisation, poverty and biodiversity) for the Budget. These are the areas where we can have the greatest impact over the longer-term. The visits provided opportunities to discuss budget priorities and investment in public services.

In autumn 2020, the Minister for Finance engaged with a range of stakeholders including all statutory Commissioners, third sector and Local Government representatives and our social partners, as part of preparations for the 2021-2022 Draft Budget. This engagement provided the opportunity to hear views on priority areas for the Budget in light of the events last year and their impact on public services. These engagement activities also included discussions about the financial context and the approach for the 2021-2022 Budget.

Ahead of the 2021-2022 Final Budget, a partnership between A-Level Economics teachers and Welsh Government policy officials was established. The partnership was utilised to test and discuss the material to be included in a budget awareness campaign. A-Level students were then invited to assess and comment on the proposed digital content, in order to test its effectiveness. The project concluded with a Question and Answer session between students, the Chief Economist and the Minister for Finance.

In December 2019, we published our first ever Budget Improvement Plan. The plan sets our vision to improve our annual budget and tax processes and includes our short-term and medium-term ambitions over the next 5 years.

We published an updated Budget Improvement Plan in December 2020, as part of the 2021-2022 Draft Budget package. The update built upon our 2019 commitment to provide more transparency around improving the Budget, including processes and supporting documentation.

Status: Completed

Milestone 2: Publish more budgetary and financial information, including contact details, in open format, via the Welsh Government website

Update on progress against milestones/activities

We continued to publish tables showing each Main Expenditure Group’s (MEG) spending decisions at a Budget Expenditure Line (BEL) level, for both the 2020-2021 Budget and 2021-2022 Budget. Since the 2019-2020 Budget, the BEL tables for the draft and final budgets have been published in the ODS (Open Data Source) format, making the data available not only to view, but also to enable its reuse for research and in data analysis, etc.

Status: Completed

Milestone 3: Look to build upon and improve our engagement activities around the development of Welsh taxes and taxation policy

Update on progress against milestones/activities

We are establishing a Tax Engagement Group, which includes representatives from business, local government and from the third sector. The objectives of the group are to comment upon the impact of Welsh taxes, to consider the content of tax policy plans, and to support engagement activity intended to increase levels of awareness, knowledge and understanding of Welsh taxes, tax policy and tax administration.

We are using a variety of methods to engage, including social media, an annual tax conference and an annual tax policy report, to better inform Welsh taxpayers and stakeholder groups about our aims for tax policy and to invite comment and contributions from them.

Where new tax ideas are under consideration, we are establishing bespoke engagement activities with stakeholders, other experts, other taxpayers and potential beneficiaries, in order to raise awareness and understanding of what is being proposed and to provide an opportunity to contribute to the design of the schemes.

We also periodically undertake surveys in order to improve our understanding of the awareness of Welsh taxes within communities, by citizens and by other stakeholders.

Status: Completed

Milestone 4: The Welsh Revenue Authority to regularly publish information openly about taxes devolved to Wales

Update on progress against milestones/activities

We publish:

• monthly, quarterly and annual statistics for Land Transaction Tax
• quarterly and annual statistics for Landfill Disposals Tax

On the Welsh Government website we publish our statistical information as HTML releases (a series of linked web pages), which makes the statistics easily accessible to users.

We also publish all data used in our statistical releases on the StatsWales website in a machine-readable format.

Status: Completed

Milestone 5: To periodically publish information concerning infrastructure projects funded via the Mutual Investment Model (a process to enable Welsh Government and the private sector to jointly fund projects)

Update on progress against milestones/activities

The ‘Mutual investment model for infrastructure investment’ web page on the Welsh Government website provides information about the scheme and includes:

• An overview that explains the purpose of the scheme and how it operates
• Technical documentation to help in the procurement phases of the scheme projects
• Guidance for the various stages of the scheme
• Standard forms used in the scheme business areas, such as the Roads Project Agreement

Updates on some of the projects have included:

• Work to complete the dualling of the A465 from Dowlais Top to Hirwaun
• Investment in the 21st Century Schools programme

Other supporting information that is available on the website includes guidance for the creation of ‘Better Business Cases’, which utilises the ‘Five Case Model’ methodology.

Status: Completed