, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 4
Thank you very much.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 4
Thank you, Rhianon. Peter Fox.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 4
We tried that. [Laughter.]
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 4
—but we didn't get a Treasury Minister to come and see us. We got a former Treasury Minister to come and see us, but we didn't—. It's something that we grapple with as committees, and it's something that we see a benefit in, shared understanding of shared…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 4
One thing you may have picked up on is that we do have an inter-parliamentary forum for the finance committees of the three devolved nations, and we did go to London, to Westminster, and we did meet with other committees there—
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 4
Over to Rhianon.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 4
Peter wanted to come in.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 4
Thank you. I'll bring Mike Hedges in.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 4
One of the evidence sessions we've had has talked about parity of esteem, and it seems to go to some of the things you were saying there. I think there's that parity of esteem between Governments; there's also within Government. You talk about Westminster…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 4
You talked there about those inter-governmental relations related to, effectively, the political culture and you talked about that in your evidence. What do you mean by that and how could it be addressed? And maybe, if you hypothesise about post general…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 4
Thank you for that. In your written evidence, you talked about the lack of engagement in the Prime Minister and Heads of Devolved Governments Council. How could that impact on the effectiveness of the IGR process and how does it reflect on the UK Government's…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 4
Fantastic. Thank you very much for coming in this morning and also thank you very much for your written evidence to us. It was fascinating and will lead, probably, on to quite a few questions from us for you to go into a bit more detail on what you've said…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 4
We'll move on to item 4, which is our next evidence session in our inquiry. We've got a witness here with us. Paul, would you mind introducing yourself for the record, please?
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 4
Welcome back to this meeting of the Finance Committee, and we will now move on to item 4.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 3
Thank you. Thank you very much for your time this morning. It's been fascinating, and your expertise is very helpful to us from your viewpoints. We will share with you a copy of the transcript. We may have one or two other questions that we might want to pose…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 3
I'll give the final word to Mike, if he wants. We've just gone over time, but we'll take a final comment.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 3
No, okay. Fair play. Peter, and I'll bring Mike in.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 3
And was that a dispute about the quantum of money, or was that—?
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 3
And nobody has tested it yet.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 3
With regard to that dispute mechanism, who can—? Forgive my ignorance of it, but how does it actually work? Is it that unilaterally somebody could raise a dispute and then it gets raised to that committee or to that meeting? Could you talk through how…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 3
Okay, that's fine.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 3
I think when we get some of the letters and reports, they're very brief from the Minister or Cabinet Secretary. So, it might be something that we would take on board and think on further. I'm going to move on to Mike, because I'm conscious of time, and there…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 3
Thank you.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 3
And with your knowledge of legislation and the frameworks and everything that's there, would legislation be needed to do that? Or would it be something that could be done through regulations or through guidance or through whatever mechanisms that are there?
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 3
So, who could feasibly do that to have that independence of Government to be able to actually make that judgment that the Treasury might actually take heed of?
