, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
Well, I think Mike makes a very strong point about it. I felt, with the previous Government, that it was just difficult to attract their attention for this issue. It’s a big issue for us, and a very small issue for a Chancellor managing a UK budget. And I…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
I was indeed. David Gauke was the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He had negotiated the Scottish fiscal framework the year before, and I was the Welsh Government Minister who negotiated it for Wales. Those figures have never changed, despite us asking for…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
Thank you. Well, I suppose the first thing to say is that we operate within the rules as they are today as far as this supplementary budget is concerned. So, there’s nothing in this that relies upon us having flexibilities that we don’t have. However, I…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
Surely. Look, if we didn't get a single penny on the 30 October, this budget would still be affordable, because we've used the money from the reserve to make it affordable. If money does come our way, then it will go back into the reserve, and it's a…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
Well, I think, Chair, it's essentially because it's important for me that the supplementary budget reflects not just spending decisions, but that we're able to explain to the Senedd how those funding decisions are to be funded, and the spending decisions that…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
Diolch yn fawr, Gadeirydd. So, the supplementary budget is essentially a backward-looking exercise. It consolidates the spending and funding decisions made within the Welsh Government since the main budget was passed by the Senedd in March of this year. In…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
Good morning, Chair. I'm Mark Drakeford, Cabinet Secretary for finance.
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
Well, I thank Paul Davies for that question, Llywydd. The terms on which Welsh rates of income tax are devolved to Wales don't allow us to have targeted tax cuts on a geographical basis. In fact, it's a very, very blunt instrument that we have without some of…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
Llywydd, rates of income tax in Wales are set each year as part of the annual budget process, through a rate resolution agreed by the Senedd.
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
Well, Llywydd, thank you to Jenny Rathbone. I agree with her that the expansion of the community nursing teams has been a great success story here in Wales. It too began with a budget agreement with Plaid Cymru, as it happens, to mount Buurtzorg pilots here…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
Llywydd, these discussions will form part of the draft budget preparation.
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
Thank you. That is an important point. For me, the best way to do it is to start with speaking, and if we can persuade people to use the language in that way, that will help people to become more confident to write and read the language as well. But without…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
I agree, of course, with the Member. When I speak to people who are learning Welsh, they always tell me that there is a shortage of opportunities for them to use what they learn in the classroom in their daily lives. So, by creating more opportunities for…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
Llywydd, the most effective way of raising confidence in speaking Welsh is to increase opportunities to use the language. That is why we aim to create a million Welsh speakers by 2050 and to double the use of the language in everyday life in Wales.
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
I can assure the Member that those opportunities will definitely be taken. As I said, I spoke to Nick Thomas-Symonds directly myself about this matter in August. He'll be meeting with Jeremy Miles next week. The assurances we have are that the window for…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
Llywydd, I thank Janet Finch-Saunders for that. This is a shared ambition, I know, across the Chamber, to make sure that people who were caught up in these awful events receive the compensation to which they are entitled; £60.2 million has come to Wales via…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
Thank you to Julie Morgan. The information I have is that applications for the interim estate payments will open this month, that there will be interim payments of up to £100,000 payable to the estates of deceased people who were registered with an infected…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
Can I thank Julie Morgan for that question, Llywydd? I met with Nick Thomas-Symonds, the UK Minister with responsibility for the infected blood inquiry, on 14 August. The Welsh system has received funding from the UK Government and successfully made interim…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
Llywydd, the Prif Weinidog outlined four top priorities in her oral statement here on the floor of the Senedd, and those four priorities will drive decision making through the budget. Many of those priorities will not be new to Members of the Senedd, because…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
I thank Peter Fox for that, Llywydd. Preparations for the 2025-26 draft budget are under way. Further actions to ensure efficient spending of resources available to the Welsh Government will be identified in the context of the UK Government's budget on 30…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
Well, Llywydd, great efforts are made, of course, to make sure that signs are available in both Welsh and English. I imagine that the occasions when people are only able to see a Welsh language warning are pretty small. There are signs, of course, that show…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
Thank you for those supplementary questions. I do agree on the importance of the mentrau iaith, and I'm very eager to see the funding that we invest with the mentrau iaith at present continuing in future. Funding in the south-east of nearly £350,000 is spent…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
Thank you to Peredur Owen Griffiths, Llywydd, for that question. We provide grant support to a wide range of local and national partners to promote the use of the Welsh language across the South Wales East region in line with the vision set out in 'Cymraeg…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
Well, Llywydd, the Plaid Cymru spokesperson's original remarks were her audition for leadership of the light brigade, weren't they? She doesn't care about the context in which she would be advancing Wales's case, she's willing to do it everywhere, whether…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
Well, Llywydd, there is a stark contrast, it seems to me, between what Plaid Cymru were saying before the election and what they are saying to me now. I remember many, many questions from the leader of Plaid Cymru about where was the ambition of Labour for…
