, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Yes, and there have been lots of difficult decisions like that made right across the budget. So, when we do our budget process and then I send a commission out to all colleagues to explore what's needed by them to deliver on our programme for government and…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
[Laughter.] That's a good question. I think the thing that keeps me awake at night in these respects is probably the challenges of public sector pay, just because the Welsh Government's budget is exposed—around 50 per cent of our budget is exposed to pay in…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
I would say, Chair, that I really don't recognise the characterisation of Welsh Government acting in a hostile way; I would say it's quite the opposite. We are constantly reaching out to the UK Government to find ways in which we can work together within the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
No. So, the UK Government still hasn't published a framework for the longer term shared prosperity fund, despite the fund being first announced in 2017. It has, of course, announced that there will be a UK-wide £560 million multiply scheme to support basic…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Yes, thank you. I share absolutely your concern about the impact of the loss of EU funding for Wales. We will receive just £46.8 million from the pilot shared prosperity fund in this financial year as compared to the £375 million in new EU funding that would…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
I'd just really commend again the strategic integrated impact assessment of the budget, which looks at the ways in which people are affected in a number of ways by disadvantage. It recognises that you might be disabled, you might be a woman, you might have a…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
We still remain committed to our gender-focused response to making spending decisions, and we've started our journey, really, in terms of gender budgeting. The personal learning accounts was the first area in which we started that journey on gender budgeting…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
We've maintained the focus on—[Inaudible.]—and you'll find more detail on that within our budget improvement plan. But, essentially, in the new year we'll be looking to launch a reformed and strengthened budget improvement and impact advisory group. It's a…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Funding support for Cardiff Airport is reflected within the aviation BEL, but that BEL does cover other aviation-related expenditure in addition to that for Cardiff Airport. But, that's where you'll find Cardiff Airport within the draft budget.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
While the budget reflects the anticipated outcome of the roads review, to date, the panel has only provided an interim report. So, we still await the final report, following which further review of budgets and priorities will be necessary. But again, most of…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
We've done analysis of previous business support schemes. Evaluation has been really important, and that's been built into the support schemes that we've had as a direct response to the pandemic. But, of course, more widely, I know that the economy Minister…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Thank you. In the lead-up to the budget I had a meeting with the Welsh Retail Consortium, for example, because they I know are a sector that has been hit particularly hard recently. I also met with our social partnership council, of which members include the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
It was a difficult choice, because I want to provide as much clarity as I can, but then it would be difficult in the third year, when new population data, for example, has been provided, and other kinds of data that are used within the settlement, and within…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
The reason why we've provided the local government level allocation in the settlement for the next financial year, but then only the global figures for the following two years, is because the data that we need in order to make those decisions about what the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
I think local government is now in a position to work quickly to provide any certainty that they're able to to third sector organisations, but one of the new ways of working that we've been adopting within Welsh Government has been to look at rolling over…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Local authorities now will be able to have that certainty for the period ahead, so they'll be looking, I know, in terms of the organisations and the support services that they're able to fund, and I've also introduced a new system within Welsh Government in…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Tackling poverty and supporting people at the earliest opportunity has been central to our thinking in terms of the budget. So, there are several examples I could point to. For example, the first is our additional investment in the enhanced commitment to free…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Shall I ask the Minister for Health and Social Services to provide a note to committee on that, because I think that's slightly beyond my responsibilities? I do have responsibilities for public sector pay, but that's in the space, really, of policy. So…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
That probably is a question for Julie Morgan, but I do have a view, and I think that local government does provide excellent services within the social care sphere, and also, local government is always, I think, very good in terms of trying to ensure that the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Lots of that detail should be within the BEL tables, but if there's anything that isn't provided that committee needs, obviously, we'll seek to provide that as soon as we can via Eluned Morgan following committee. But I think it shows, over the next three…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Absolutely. I know Mike Hedges has spoken before about the fact that some of these changes are really transformational in terms of how we live and work. You'll see in the budget, through support for town centres, for example, that we're exploring how we can…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
So, we would expect social homes, for example, to be leading the way by being built to standards that are in excess of Part L. You'll see the infrastructure finance plan includes funding of more than £1 billion over the three years of capital allocations for…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
No. We really hoped that the UK Government would take the opportunity within the comprehensive spending review to support the Welsh communities with a package of support in the long term, but there's been a complete absence of any funding for this work. We'll…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
So, this budget does set out significant additional funding in flooding. It also sets out significant funding for the remediation of coal tips as well. So, I know that my colleague Julie James will probably get into some of the detail of that in her committee…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
One thing I would really draw attention to is our new Wales infrastructure investment strategy, and that comes about as a result of a fundamental zero-based review of capital, which, again, is something new that we've done this year. And we've built up our…
