Eluned Morgan MS, First Minister
Today, I can confirm that the Welsh Ministers have discharged the statutory requirement for the reporting period 2025–26 set out under section17 of the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023 (“the SPPP Act”).
The SPPP Act requires the Welsh Ministers to consult the Social Partnership Council (SPC) on decisions of a strategic nature about the reasonable steps they take towards meeting their well‑being objectives, as set under the Well‑being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
Section 19 of the Act also requires the Welsh Ministers to prepare an annual report in respect of each financial year explaining what they have done to comply with this duty in the last 12 months. This report must be agreed with the SPC or include a statement explaining why agreement was not reached.
Cabinet agreed that the section 17 duty would be fulfilled by consulting the SPC each year on the three overarching drivers of the strategic delivery of the Welsh Government’s Programme for Government: the Welsh Government’s Legislative Programme, Annual Review of Well‑being Objectives, and the annual Budget Priorities. I can confirm that consultations on these took place throughout 2025 at SPC meetings on the 12 March, 4 June, and 22 September respectively. These consultations allowed SPC members to participate at a formative stage of the strategic decision-making process on the delivery of the three overarching drivers of the Programme for Government.
Legislative Priorities
I consulted the SPC on the Government’s legislative priorities by giving members an overview of progress with the Bills being considered by the Senedd at that time as well as the proposed Year 5 Bills. Discussion centred on the Bus Bill and the need to protect workers, the Health and Social Care Bill and the removal of profit from children’s services, and the Homelessness Bill. The SPC’s views were fed back to Cabinet and the relevant Bill Ministers as part of finalising the legislative programme ahead of my statement to Plenary
Annual Review of Well-being Objectives
I had a constructive discussion with SPC members about progress towards our well-being objectives with members expressing views on the measurement of progress, how to achieve intergenerational change and whether, in future, there should be a separate objective relating to promotion of the Welsh Language. We also discussed the Welsh Spending Review.
2026-27 Draft Budget
The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language highlighted the difficulty of securing Senedd approval for the 2026–27 Budget and stressed the need to give public services certainty after the May election. He warned that failure to pass a budget would trigger cuts to current spending levels, severely affecting services and jobs.
SPC members recognised the difficult context and said that they would stress the importance of passing a budget to their networks. The Cabinet Secretary said work with local government and other sectors continued, and an update on planned mitigations would follow.
All minutes and papers relating to the SPC have been published on the SPC website, and can be found here.