, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
First of all, just to agree with you in respect of the points about local government being in a very challenging situation at the moment for all of the reasons that you have described, but also to reflect really that we have provided local authorities with…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
Shall I, then, as an action from the committee, at our next Cabinet sub-committee on the legislative programme, just take an opportunity to reflect to colleagues what I've heard from committee today, and then we can explore the issues a bit more?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
We can also explore if there's more we can do to explain why there is a large range in some cases. If we're not explaining adequately to committee why there's a range, then we need to reflect on that as well.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
I think that there might be some specific reasons why some Bills are wide of the mark on this occasion. I'm thinking of the Public Health (Wales) Act 2017, which was one of the Bills that I took through the Senedd. One of the reasons why the costs have been…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
I regularly attend the Cabinet sub-committee on our legislative programme, and officials are obviously regularly engaged in terms of the development of the Bills. For the RIAs themselves, the responsibility there does lie with the relevant policy department…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
I think that you can see through the strategic impact assessment that we've done our best to understand the implications of our budget. One of the things that we're very mindful of in terms of our core reasons for doing the budget is to put our money where…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
I would say as well, just reflecting on the discussions I've had with the education Minister as we went around setting the draft budget, there are big pressures within that particular budget as well, which I'm very mindful of.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
I'll ask Emma just to come in in terms of what the modelling would tell us about what the increases might cost for the budget. But, as you say, it really is just a choice that we made within the available budget, and, again, a difficult, difficult choice that…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
You'll remember that we committed to several interventions, allocating over £190 million to eliminate fuel poverty as part of the spending review that was conducted last year. In that, we announced an increase in the Warm Homes programme budget of £5 million…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
I think that's why it's so important that the Centre for Digital Public Services is so involved in this work as well, because they'll have a particular perspective and some really important expertise that they can share with us.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
That will definitely be part of the work that Jane Hutt is leading, as well as perceptions around data-sharing rules, as well, because, sometimes, even though data is able to be shared, there's a nervousness among organisations and individuals working in…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
Yes, 'proactive' is the word I was looking for.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
Well, we're very committed to exactly what you described in terms of having that single point of contact for people to access the Welsh benefits system, if you like, and officials are working at the moment with the Centre for Digital Public Services to…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
So, it won't be through our new-build programmes, but of course, I think, inevitably, we will be doing fewer new builds as a result of inflation. So, in that sense, what we will achieve overall will be will be less.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
No, I don't think that we have to accept that, because when you look at the schools that Andrew referred to as having just had financial close, we've got the three to 16 all through Mynydd Isa campus in Flintshire and a batch of three primary schools in…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
Yes. Because it's a real-terms cut, if you like, they've interpreted that as a cut, but actually it's a flatline of budget or an unchanged budget. So, people do view things in different ways. You could view it as saying, 'Well, that budget line has been…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
We have seen that in a number of areas where stakeholders have looked at the budget and seen that we haven't added additional money and then, because it's—
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
I'll ask Andrew to come in on this.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
Yes, I'm satisfied that we don't need to redo the work that we did last time, because I think it's important, as well, to reflect that, last year, we were scrutinising a three-year budget after we undertook our spending review in response to the three-year…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
So, that's work now that officials are actively considering how we take forward, and it's set out in the budget improvement plan as one of the things that we will be taking forward. The first meeting of the BIIAG, [correction: The first meeting of the BIIAG…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
I saw wry smiles either side of me when you were asking that question, but, yes, absolutely, the team has been extremely stretched over recent years. There was lots of work going on in terms of preparation for Brexit, and then, of course, when the pandemic…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
Can I just add, on transparency and the level of information that we provide? We're always trying to provide as much information as we possibly can, and we haven't got the final figure this year, but last year we published more words than there are in The…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
Shall I invite Emma to come in on this? But, before she does—and I hope she wasn't going to make the same point—it was around the strategic integrated impact assessments. So, the intention of that is to understand the multiple impacts, the cumulative impacts…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
I think the BEL tables are really helpful in showing where money has been moved away from through the budget-setting process. And then every Minister has provided a written paper to committees, and often they tease out and explain some of those things. And…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 8
Yes, percentage-wise, in terms of the overall MEG, it was the rural economic and sustainability BEL.
