Written Assembly Questions tabled on 23 November 2015 for answer on 30 November 2015
R - Signifies the Member has declared an interest.
W - Signifies that the question was tabled in Welsh.
(Self identifying Question no. shown in brackets)
Written Questions must be tabled at least five working days before they are to be answered. In practice, Ministers aim to answer within seven/eight days but are not bound to do so. Answers are published in the language in which they are provided, with a translation into English of responses provided in Welsh.
To ask the Minister for Finance and Government Business
Andrew RT Davies (South Wales Central): Of the 6 projects in Wales funded by EU structural funds between 2007 and 2013, for which completed figures are available, how can the Minister give assurances that new projects will deliver the original indicators and that they will deliver value for money? (WAQ69488)
Andrew RT Davies (South Wales Central): Why has there been such a delay in releasing project data for projects in Wales funded by EU structural funds between 2007 and 2013? (WAQ69489)
Andrew RT Davies (South Wales Central): When will the missing project data for projects in Wales funded by EU structural funds between 2007 and 2013 be made available? (WAQ69490)
Andrew RT Davies (South Wales Central): What were the original targets for all Welsh projects funded by EU structural funds between 2007 and 2013? (WAQ69491)
Andrew RT Davies (South Wales Central): If the targets for projects funded by EU structural funds in Wales between 2007 and 2013 have been changed, why is this the case? (WAQ69492)
Answer received on 1 December 2015
The Minister for Finance and Government Business (Jane Hutt):
The European Structural Funds programmes 2007–2013 supported 290 projects across Wales worth £1.9 billion of EU funds, driving a total project investment of £3.6 billion.
All EU funded projects are required by the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) to set output targets as part of their condition of funding. The targets for each project contribute to the targets agreed with the European Commission at the outset of each seven-year programme period, which are detailed in the Operational Programmes (published on WEFO's website), and have not changed. The targets have been surpassed by considerable margins in many cases, however, the Commission has indicated that it prefers not to revise the targets in order to retain transparency against the original ambitions.
The circumstances of individual projects can change due to a range of external and internal factors such as economic and labour market conditions, findings of independent project evaluations and programme evaluations, tendering and delivery arrangements, infrastructure developments, and compliance issues. Projects are closely monitored and re-evaluated by WEFO during their delivery, and funding is allocated across the programmes as necessary so that the full and best use of the potential funding available is made. The monitoring and evaluation of projects and programmes is an ongoing process, and where appropriate, EU funds have been recycled to other projects and other priorities of the programmes.
As a result, we are on course to meet or exceed our key indicators. EU projects have helped over 64,800 people into work and 203,000 to gain qualifications, and created some 31,800 (gross) jobs and some 10,500 enterprises. Progress of the programmes is reported regularly to the Programme Monitoring Committee (PMC), which is made up largely of external partners from the private, third and public sectors. PMC papers are published on WEFO's website.
The delivery of the 2007–2013 and 2014–2020 programmes overlap, and the 2007–2013 programmes are now drawing to a close. WEFO is currently in the process of closing projects, with a number continuing to spend their funding allocations and report their output achievements to WEFO until well into 2016. Final project achievements against agreed output targets have been published for nearly one-fifth of the total number of approved projects; final output achievements of the remaining projects will be published over the coming months.
The output data provided by project sponsors complements other monitoring and evaluation measures, including mid-year and final evaluations of projects and programme evaluations which are regularly published on the WEFO website. Together with a prioritisation and selection process, which has been agreed by the PMC, these measures will help inform future activities to be supported through the new round of EU funds so that value for money and jobs and growth are maximised for the benefit of Wales.