Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee

I represent Plaid Cymru on the regional list for Mid and West Wales.

Diolch, Cefin. Perhaps Natasha, as also the equally newest member.

Thank you so much, Chair. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Natasha Asghar. I am the Welsh Conservative Member for South Wales East. I'm very happy to be here amongst all of you today and I look forward to working with you over the next five years.

Thank you. Rhianon.

Thank you very much, Chair, and it's a delight to be able to sit back on the newly mandated former Public Accounts Committee, and I'm sure we will work very productively together to examine the finances throughout the mandate of this committee. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Rhianon. And last but very much not least, an old colleague, Mike Hedges.

Mike Hedges, Labour Member for Swansea East and a long-term member of this committee, with only a small interruption.

Thank you very much, Mike. I'd like to place on record how honoured I am to have been elected to chair this influential committee, the duty of which is to ensure that the billions of pounds of tax paid by our hard-working public are not wasted, and to hold to account all those responsible for spending that money. Our key audience is the public, the people of Wales, and we have a vital role in instilling public confidence in how public money is being spent and in securing better value for money. So, I look forward as Chair of this committee to fulfilling these responsibilities with its members.

No apologies for absence have been received for this meeting. Do Members have any declarations of registerable interests they wish to declare at this point? I'll take silence as 'no interests to declare'.

Before we begin, can I just check finally that everyone understands how to indicate if they wish to speak? Again, I'll take silence as confirmation. Diolch. Thank you. Simultaneous interpretation is available from Welsh into English, using the downloaded Zoom application. Interpretation does not work when accessing the meeting through an internet browser. Attendees who want to hear the English interpreter when Welsh is spoken should ensure that 'English' is selected from the interpretation menu option at the bottom of the Zoom application window. Attendees who do not require interpretation should ensure that 'off' is selected from the interpretation menu.