, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
Mike Hedges, did you want to come in? If we could unmute Mike for me. There we are; go for it, Mike.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
Okay. So, can you talk us through some of the highlights of this budget? Who are the winners and losers, I suppose, within that?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
Thank you for coming in and thank you for, obviously, the documentation on the budget that we had yesterday. So, we've been looking through that and trying to understand a little bit about the decisions that you've made and the impact of those. I'd like to…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
Okay. Thank you very much. A warm welcome to you.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
So, we'll move on, then, to our substantive item this morning, and that's the scrutiny of the Welsh Government's draft budget for 2024-25. We have our witnesses with us. We have the Minister with us and officials. Would you introduce yourself and your…
, Finance Committee
Papers to note
We'll move on, then, to papers to note. Papers to note—we've got seven papers there. Unless anybody has any comment to make on them, we'll note them for the record. That's fine. Okay. Great.
, Finance Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
A warm welcome to this meeting of the Finance Committee, the last meeting of this year, and it's good to be with you, and I'd like to welcome everyone watching from home. This meeting will be a public meeting and a Record of Proceedings will be published, as…
, Plenary
Topical Questions
Thanks for that answer, Minister. I'd like to fully acknowledge the difficulties facing the Welsh Government. The Tory-driven austerity and economic incompetence has left public finances in a ruinous state. This has resulted in a significant erosion of the…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Social Justice and Chief Whip
Since the violence erupted in Gaza at the beginning of October, the death toll has now passed 18,000 in just over two months. Analysis has shown that the majority of the deaths have been innocent civilians, many of them children, which is utterly…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Social Justice and Chief Whip
Thank you for that response.
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Social Justice and Chief Whip
5. Will the Minister provide an update on Welsh Government schemes for refugees? OQ60429
, Plenary
Business Statement and Announcement
Trefnydd, could we have a statement on improving public transport in the Valleys, and my region in particular? This follows on from the news that the long-awaited line between Ebbw Vale and Newport will not be opening this side of Christmas, as promised. We…
, Petitions Committee
Updates to previous petitions
Or the other thing that we could do, I suppose, is ask in the general scrutiny of the budget in—I'd imagine this would be children and young people's committee—for them to pick this element up within that scrutiny and then report back to us before we call for…
, Petitions Committee
Updates to previous petitions
Just a thought, because the budget is obviously going to be laid on the nineteenth, and then we'll be debating budgets, and this is to do with funding, in essence, rather than calling for a debate now, that we relook at it after we've seen the budget itself…
, Petitions Committee
Updates to previous petitions
Diolch, Cadeirydd. This petition is really important and I thank Zoe for raising it. The Chair of the Children, Young People and Education Committee confirmed that the issues have been raised by the petitioner through their inquiry into equal access to…
, Petitions Committee
Updates to previous petitions
We won't rehearse those arguments now.
, Petitions Committee
Updates to previous petitions
I echo that: I know Mark well as well. The other thing is I'd direct people to my register of interests. I've been on a four-day working week seminar as well, so it was one of the things I was paid for, so just for people to be aware of that. I'm an advocate…
, Petitions Committee
New Petitions
I'd echo what Rhys says there. I think the process seems to be onerous. The only caveat I would say—this is me racking my brains a little bit; it may be something we can check out with the Deputy Minister—is, from scrutiny of the legislation on elections…
, Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Diolch, Cadeirydd. I know this is quite a hot topic, especially if you go and speak to young people in high schools in particular—it's a big topic of discussion. I know Rhys ab Owen brought this up in some amendments fairly recently in the Chamber, and…
, Petitions Committee
P-06-1307 The Welsh Government should commit to the adoption of the maintenance of new housing estates by local authorities
Thanks. I just wanted to clarify that, that's all.
, Petitions Committee
P-06-1307 The Welsh Government should commit to the adoption of the maintenance of new housing estates by local authorities
It's just something that I should have asked earlier, really. When you're talking about charging the home owner and that sort of thing, how does it work when the home owner is the landlord rather than the occupier? How does that relationship work?
, Petitions Committee
P-06-1307 The Welsh Government should commit to the adoption of the maintenance of new housing estates by local authorities
Thank you. Diolch.
, Petitions Committee
P-06-1307 The Welsh Government should commit to the adoption of the maintenance of new housing estates by local authorities
At the moment, inflation has been up at 10 per cent, and everything goes up in cost; it's coming up to the end of the year, and the costs are going to be higher. What sort of dispute resolution efficiencies have you made throughout the year? What sort of…
, Petitions Committee
P-06-1307 The Welsh Government should commit to the adoption of the maintenance of new housing estates by local authorities
I'll just ask a quick question around—. You talked about your reconciliation process at the end of the year. If there are underspends, I assume that comes off the following year. From a fairness or a disputes point of view, if you've carried out works—and you…
, Petitions Committee
P-06-1307 The Welsh Government should commit to the adoption of the maintenance of new housing estates by local authorities
So, you wouldn't take that risk on, basically?
