, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
The Pierhead building is one of those rare buildings that does have a lot of public interest. A lot of people assume that that’s the Parliament building as well. The Pierhead project is currently going through an options analysis. We’ve already worked on the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
We've got some brilliant Commission staff.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
I can't speak for the future at this point, but you would imagine that any choices that we have to make would be showcased to Members and members of the public before we make them.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
I'd hesitate to call it high risk, because we've got an audit and risk assurance committee that makes sure that things aren't high risk and that, where risk is involved, it's minimised.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
You've got your statutory role, you can call us in at any time for a discussion on the budget, but I think we should be more structured and strategic than that. What I'd like to be able to do is come here and give a direct evidence session on Bay 32. There's…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
You're talking about Bay 32 there, aren't you?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
And the adaptations to Tŷ Hywel as well, sorry.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Can I just finish that point, just to say that that's where the costs went up? Because to do that for 96 costs a lot more.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Yes, I can. The staff costs have gone down. From the RIA, the resource impact assessment, that was done for the Government—it was done by the Commission for the Government, I should be clear—for the Senedd reform Act, the staffing costs from that have gone…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
No, not this year, but once we're into a steady state following the step change into the seventh Senedd, it will deliver savings, because that's its job. At this point in time, it's telling us that if you want to deliver savings, they've got to be in those…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
No. The Commission has taken the decision this year that to work on the kind of minimal savings you might be able to find that would directly impact Members that I've mentioned would take away from the work that is being done to deliver a Parliament fit for…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
I like the organic nature of this. This is very good.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Can I just say one more thing, just before we move on? On that figure that Manon mentioned—that the chief executive mentioned—47.9 is the FTE in the budget. In the regulatory impact assessment that accompanied the Senedd reform Act, it was 59.9. So, that came…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Yes. And, in fact, I think that the Scottish Parliament is £195,000 more expensive per Member than the Senedd.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Yes. So, the medium-term resourcing framework does exactly that. So, one Senedd Member, through the engagement process that we did with the groups, came up to me and he said, ‘What you should be doing is commanding your Commission staff'—it was very strange…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
So, that’s more or less where we are. We haven’t got a redundancy or a staff reduction policy, but we have got a policy whereby the medium-term resource framework is continually analysing the effectiveness of staff. So, the medium-term resource framework—71…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Yes, so non-replacement happens already. So, the staff this year have only grown by four staff, and that’s to service one committee. It will grow by 47.9 full-time equivalent for Senedd reform, but that is an increase that is necessary to deliver a Senedd…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
So, that’s exactly what you’re saying, Mike. The amount of international travel was reduced last year, and it was temporarily suspended, I think. So, those things are happening, but we’re at the point now where you can’t really slice at it any more without…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
That's true, isn't it?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
So, you've got two questions there. First of all, let me come to, 'You could reduce budgets'—I better write down the other one as well.—'you could reduce budgets in certain areas rather than cutting them completely.' That's what's happened. So, a management…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Yes.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Solidarity, comrade. [Laughter.]
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
So, we've had in-year savings in the last couple of years, and I think that sponge has been squeezed probably as dry as you are going to be able to squeeze it without having a direct impact on what Members and members of the public see. So, I've asked for a…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
So, the operational budget would cover project costs. So, the point of the operational budget—it doesn't cover Senedd reform or Bay 32.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
But infrastructure comes into the project fund, which is in the operational budget. That's correct, isn't it, Simon? Yes.
