, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 4
Okay, thanks. I wondered if anyone else was coming in. The Bevan Foundation said in its response to the committee consultation about the draft budget for 2025-26 that many Welsh benefits, including educational maintenance allowance, have not increased with…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 4
Thank you very much. This is to everybody: how can the Welsh Government do more with the resources it has to extend eligibility for free school meals? Would the reintroduction of free school meals in holidays have a significant enough impact to reduce…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 4
Diolch, Cadeirydd. To Victoria, your response to the draft budget said that the draft budget was 'a regrettable missed opportunity to address the fundamental issues with childcare in Wales'. Can you expand on this? What could the Welsh Government have done to…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 3
You say income tax is progressive, but we know it isn't, don't we? Income tax is so easy to avoid. People don't get paid by income, they get paid by dividend. They've got so many means of reducing their income tax. The advantage of council tax is you can't up…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 3
And finally from me, the Welsh Government published their fourth tax policy report this year. What is your overall view of how ambitious and effective the Welsh Government has been using existing powers?
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 3
Wales has benefitted from the freezing of tax bands, hasn't it? If tax bands had gone up, then Wales would have been disadvantaged. Keeping the previous tax bands has put more people into each of the tax bands, which has benefitted Wales compared to the rest…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 3
Diolch, Cadeirydd. Do you have any views on which areas the OBR should focus on to improve Welsh tax forecasts?
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 3
Productivity within hospitals reduced dramatically from 2002 to 2014-15. They stopped producing the figures after that, but I've no reason to believe it's not continued to reduce. But productivity is something we don't talk about enough, and the expectation…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 3
Do you think the budget takes the opportunity to invest in initiatives that are preventative or transformational?
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 3
Is there a clear view from the budget documentation and the allocations made of how the Welsh Government has prioritised revenue spending and what it's seeking to achieve with these changes?
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 2
Okay, thank you.
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 2
I unmuted myself and the host unmuted me and I ended up being muted again. Apologies for that. Just one comment. I know that hospitality and care are talking about difficulty in recruitment. Have you looked at that, or do you want to make a comment on that?…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 2
Thank you. Your Welsh taxes outlook provides an initial assessment of successive forecast differences for the Welsh rates of income tax for 2022-23. What have you learnt from this exercise and how will it inform your forecasts in the future?
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 2
Okay, thank you very much. The Office for National Statistics reported that reduced responses to many surveys, such as the labour force survey, has increased variability of outputs. You also mentioned the time lag associated with the survey of personal…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 2
Diolch, Cadeirydd. How sensitive is your modelling to your productivity growth rate forecasts and how could this impact WRIT forecasts? Don’t you see the increase in national insurance being an incentive for people to increase productivity, and don’t you see…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 2
You're talking about a number of sectors there where people are being paid the minimum wage. Are you suggesting the company is going to pay less than the minimum wage?
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 2
I’ll make two points. Surely, a lot of the problems with wages rising or not is due to a shortage of skills, and I think, in areas where there’s a skills shortage, won’t it have no effect whatsoever because there’ll still be a battle over getting people with…
, Plenary
Questions to the Senedd Commission
There is also the difficulty and additional cost of hiring a coach with wheelchair access. This means that schools who have a need for a vehicle with wheelchair access are unlikely to visit due to cost. Has the Commission considered additional support for…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales
Thank you.
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales
Thank you for that answer. If there was exactly the same amount each hour, there wouldn't be a problem. As someone who travels regularly along the M4 between junctions 43 and 38, I see daily, at peak periods, regular traffic jams, with stationary and…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales
4. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on traffic flow on the M4 between Junction 43 and Junction 38? OQ62048
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Motion under Standing Order 17.42 to resolve to exclude the public from the remainder of the meeting
Motion under Standing Order 17.42 to resolve to exclude the public from the remainder of the meeting. Is that agreed? Yes.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Papers to note
Item 7, papers to note. Correspondence from the Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales: the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill. The letter from the Cabinet Secretary is in response to our letter of 30 November, which sought further…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Inter-Institutional Relations Agreement
Item 6, notification of correspondence under the inter-institutional relations agreement. Correspondence from the Welsh Government: inter-ministerial groups. We have a letter and a written statement from the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Instruments that raise issues to be reported to the Senedd under Standing Order 21.2 or 21.3 - previously considered
Thank you very much.
