, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2021-22: Evidence session
You've given £50 million to local authorities to cover overspends and winter pressure. Has that gone out via formula, or has it gone out via what local authorities are asking for?
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2021-22: Evidence session
From my experience, which might be different to others', the big capacity problem is the lack of critical care beds, the lack of operating theatre capacity, so that even if you've got the people you've got nowhere for them to work. The point I was trying to…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2021-22: Evidence session
Well, we've got to the fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. I assume there are more viruses coming along; we're probably at pi now. Anyway, just moving on, local health board recovery plans, I think, are really important, and I think one thing that many of…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2021-22: Evidence session
I'd better stop there before the Chair gets annoyed with me, or more annoyed than he is. Turning to the health budget, you've allocated in the supplementary budget £411 million to health and social services for the cost of dealing with the pandemic. What do…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2021-22: Evidence session
I won't push it any further, but I would just say that there was a time when the Treasury wrote off substantial overspends within the health service in England and we should have had a consequential from that. I think—through you, Chair—as a committee, we'd…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2021-22: Evidence session
Sorry to push this, Chair, because I think this is really important. Don't we have our own checks on it, or is it just, 'Oh, thank you very much, you've given us £10 million. You might have given England £1 billion, but thank you very much'? Have we got a…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2021-22: Evidence session
But the Welsh amount should be coming in accordance with Barnett and the Barnett clause, surely.
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2021-22: Evidence session
Yes: £100 million is taken off the Home Office; £100 million is given to health in England. Now, that is an internal transfer within England, but it's moving from 100 per cent non-devolved area to an area that is devolved. So, shouldn't we be getting the…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Second Supplementary Budget 2021-22: Evidence session
I have a comment and then I'll ask a question. My comment is: I think that our problem is the Treasury treats the Welsh and Scottish Governments as if they're Westminster departments, as opposed to devolved institutions. I think that's where we've got a…
, Plenary
Business Statement and Announcement
I'm asking for a Government statement on diagnosing autism in adults and the information campaign explaining the common signs of autism. It was DSM-IV, released in 1994, that first categorised autism as a spectrum. Anybody born before 1976 would have left…
, Plenary
Emergency Question: The Russian Invasion of Ukraine
At the weekend, along with Rebecca Evans, I attended and spoke at a rally in Mumbles in support of Ukraine. Swansea had a large Ukrainian population immediately following the second world war, and until the end of the last century there was a Ukrainian club…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill: Evidence session 6
I think that because that would mean us fulfilling our role, and the most important bit of that, of course, is that it would concentrate the mind of whoever is appointed as finance Minister when we know that that is something that is going to be looked at…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill: Evidence session 6
No, but I just want to make that point. The really key thing is, if it doesn't work at all, yes, you'll deal with it. There won't be any problem at all; you'll come back with further legislation. If it works perfectly, everybody would say, 'Well done, you've…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill: Evidence session 6
No, you're fine now. But this idea that there will be different ones, I think is—
, Finance Committee
Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill: Evidence session 6
Before they move on, normally to higher office, if that makes you feel better.
, Finance Committee
Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill: Evidence session 6
My first comment, I wasn't writing you off, Rebecca—Minister—but all you have to look at is, historically, finance Ministers last between about three or four years before they move on.
, Finance Committee
Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill: Evidence session 6
But—
, Finance Committee
Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill: Evidence session 6
If you want to go to 10 years' time, I probably won't be a member of the finance committee and I think there may well be an entirely different committee. I'm the only one who was here 10 years ago, so the likelihood is that the membership will change, because…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill: Evidence session 6
All right, in 100 years' time, somebody definitely will be, and it's unusual for people to hold the same ministerial office for 20 years or so, isn't it, at any level? So, I just think that we've got to remember we're not doing this with you, we're doing it…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill: Evidence session 6
Well, 'Is it desirable?' is a matter of opinion and I'm sure you'll get, this afternoon, 60 different opinions on whether it's desirable or not. What's the benefit of it? It means that you have some form of review. If you're not going to do that, how are you…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill: Evidence session 6
I'll keep on this, because I think it is a point I'm interested in, if no-one else is, and that is that, obviously, the Minister, whoever they were, 12 months before the sunset clause or up to five years, would say, 'It's our intention to continue with this…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill: Evidence session 6
Yes.
, Finance Committee
Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill: Evidence session 6
The purpose of that would be—it's straightforward, really, I thought—that it would end on this date and that would mean that people would have to think about it, and they'd want to think if they want to continue with it or not, rather than it continuing for…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill: Evidence session 6
Yet. It's inevitable we will have a finance Bill at some stage, I think. At what stage, under what Government, we don't know. But as we get more taxes devolved, as we get more powers devolved, it has a level of inevitability that we'll have one. I don't want…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill: Evidence session 6
We've heard evidence submitted to the committee supporting the use of a sunset clause in relation to taxation. Did you consider it? And if you did, why do you reject it?
