29 Medi 2022 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Sesiwn graffu ar waith y Gweinidog – Y Gweinidog Cyllid a Llywodraeth Leol
Yes, certainly. Public sector pay is one of the greatest concerns, I think, that we have in Welsh Government because of the huge impact that it does have on budgets, in the sense that around 50 per cent of the Welsh Government's budget is exposed to pay in…
29 Medi 2022 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Sesiwn graffu ar waith y Gweinidog – Y Gweinidog Cyllid a Llywodraeth Leol
Yes. We know the inflationary impact is particularly severe in terms of construction costs, and that is impacting on delivery of the sustainable communities for learning programme. It is considered manageable within the existing resources that we have at the…
29 Medi 2022 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Sesiwn graffu ar waith y Gweinidog – Y Gweinidog Cyllid a Llywodraeth Leol
I think the issue of capital budgets is absolutely critical, because as you know, over the three-year spending review period, our capital budget falls in real terms every year, and is worth 11 per cent less, and that's even before taking into account…
29 Medi 2022 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Sesiwn graffu ar waith y Gweinidog – Y Gweinidog Cyllid a Llywodraeth Leol
Yes. I would agree with the assessment of the leader of the WLGA in the sense that the situation that we're seeing at the moment is extremely serious in terms of public finances. So, you'll have heard me say that, in recent days, we've done some work that…
29 Medi 2022 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Sesiwn graffu ar waith y Gweinidog – Y Gweinidog Cyllid a Llywodraeth Leol
Yes, of course. I'll ask officials to introduce themselves.
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
Anything we can do to support that kind of thing—sharing briefings with officials, and so on—would be welcome on our side as well.
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
Okay. I'll have the discussion anyway.
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
I'll certainly make the Trefnydd aware of the issues that have been raised in committee today in terms of the timing and the format of debates, and so on.
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
I wish I had a crystal ball. I think that we had some really good discussions when we were taking the Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Act 2022 through the Senedd about the scrutiny, particularly of tax changes, and so on. I think that part of that…
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
I might ask Emma to come in on this as well, but I think, to be fair to the protocol, it has shown how flexible it has been. So, it has, I think, been effective in that sense, in terms of allowing us to adapt to what have been real uncertainties. We couldn't…
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
So, it was due to be tomorrow, but I think that was in the diary prior to the change in Government, so we're expecting it now in October.
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
I'm always keen to give people the benefit of the doubt and hope that things will improve. It didn't get off to the best start, in the sense that it took some time to have an initial call with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and that was even after the…
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
Yes. There is a formal dispute process, which is set out through the inter-governmental machinery. I think it was in this committee recently I was talking about some of the things that would warrant, I think, a dispute, but we haven't yet used that. So, I…
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
Yes, very happy to do that. You mentioned also that I'd written to committee with some further information on this particular issue. So, as a devolved Government, we operated within the overall departmental expenditure limit budgetary control that is set by…
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
We always try and be as transparent as we possibly can, and I hope committee will recognise some real improvements that we've made in the budget documentation, for example, and the budget improvement plan and the ways of engaging over recent years, and…
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
I think that the work that this committee does in terms of your budget engagement is really helpful, as is the debate that we have in the Senedd ahead of every summer recess. That's really, really helpful in terms of understanding colleagues' priorities and…
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
I think this is something that we do right across Government anyway. Every official managing any kind of programme or so on has to be very familiar with 'Managing Welsh Public Money', which is a really important and instructive document that sets out how…
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
That figure recognises the pressure that they anticipate by that year, but it doesn't recognise the fact that they will be building less for that over that period. We can get a written update from the Minister responsible, if you like.
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
Well, that's the pressure I've got in here.
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
So, each individual department will be looking at this and looking at their programmes at the moment. I was in local government committee this morning, where they were asking about the schools programme, and I know that some work is going on there…
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
Local government officials are also working with treasurers in individual local authorities to understand the pressures that they're facing, and obviously they'll be factoring in this particular issue into those calculations now.
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
We don't know the answer to that yet. I understand that we're still trying to get some further clarity from the Treasury in terms of to what extent it covers the public sector.
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
And that's something that we are going to have to deal with, I think, in terms of the budget, and that's the clawback by the UK Government of the national insurance contributions on the employers' side for the next two financial years. So, that will be…
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
Can I add one small thing before we move on?
29 Medi 2022 , Finance Committee
Cyllideb Ddrafft Llywodraeth Cymru 2023-24—Craffu cyn y gyllideb
I think that the announcement on Monday from Treasury in relation to the information that will be published on the twenty-second [correction: twenty-third] will help us in that sense of sticking to 13 December. I'll probably check with Emma if there's…
