, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 8
I think my first reaction, Chair, is not to be surprised that some people find the Welsh Government budget difficult to follow and understand, because it is a complex business. It's £26 billion. There is just inherent complexity in the way in which…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 8
There is sufficient room in the Welsh reserve for us to be able to accommodate the scale of changes that we anticipate.
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 8
Well, I think the incoming Government has been helpful in giving us much earlier notification of its plans, and we're not anticipating as much of a late flurry as we've had in more recent years, but that doesn't mean that there won't be anything.
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 8
—high enough for it to be imminent. Because it's not, then we are happy to publish the figures that we have, up to and including the October budget. The only slight health warning that I'd then attach is that those figures will probably have been overtaken by…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 8
I think, with the incoming Government, it is it simply that their hands have been very full with trying to get a budget within a few months, with a comprehensive spending review, and this is just—. I don't think they have an intention not to do it, I just…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 8
Myself, I think the preferable arrangement is for the UK Government to publish that, and, for a number of years, it did publish it. But the Chair is right, of course, that a publication has not now happened since July 2023. Andrew and colleagues have made…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 8
It's not.
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 8
Diolch yn fawr, Cadeirydd. I think what the plans of the new UK Government do are to institutionalise, for the next four or five years, the difficulties that the protocol has experienced now since about 2017. Because, year after year, we have had to deal with…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 8
Good morning, Chair. Thank you very much. I'm Mark Drakeford, Cabinet Secretary for finance. With me this morning I have Andrew Jeffreys, head of the Treasury in the Government, and Emma Watkins, who is responsible for the budget and doing the day-to-day work…
, Plenary
The Land Transaction Tax (Tax Bands and Tax Rates) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2024
Well, I understand the points that Sam Rowlands has made, Dirprwy Lywydd, because they are a difference of principle between the Welsh Conservative party and those on these benches. We believe in progressive taxation, and the Welsh Conservative party does…
, Plenary
The Land Transaction Tax (Tax Bands and Tax Rates) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2024
Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. In the draft budget published in December, I set out details of the Welsh Government plans for expenditure in the coming financial year and also for how we will live up to our responsibilities in raising revenue to support…
, Plenary
The Land Transaction Tax (Modification of Special Tax Sites Relief) (Wales) Regulations 2025
No, thank you.
, Plenary
The Land Transaction Tax (Modification of Special Tax Sites Relief) (Wales) Regulations 2025
Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. These regulations amend Schedule 21A to the Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Act 2017 to extend the LTT special tax sites relief to the special tax sites designated by the UK Government in…
, Plenary
The Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements and Default Scheme) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2025
Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. I thank the Chair of the LJC committee for the detailed and technical work that they've carried out on the regulations. It's the Government's belief that the amendments we will make to the regulations to be signed will be…
, Plenary
The Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements and Default Scheme) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2025
Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. Well, every year, for more than a decade, the Welsh Government has placed regulations in front of the Senedd to ensure that the sums used in calculation of council tax benefit are routinely updated and to ensure that the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Evidence session on the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill
Thank you. We'll look forward to that.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Evidence session on the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill
Thank you very much.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Evidence session on the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill
But of course, yes, Chair, by all means.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Evidence session on the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill
Chair, essentially, the negative procedure is chosen here because the use of this power that we envisage is if a local authority needs a brief extension of a week or so in order to comply with the timetables that the Bill sets out, and I wasn't sure that the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Evidence session on the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill
Because I think it is entirely operational, Chair. So, the Bill provides that if you collect less than £1,000 in the visitor levy, you are able to provide an annual return or a quarterly return. Just as we were talking earlier about needing to sustain the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Evidence session on the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill
No, not in those circumstances.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Evidence session on the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill
The reason why we have this provision in the Bill, Chair, is to distinguish between people who are visitors from people who are more long-term users. So, Cardiff is the best example of this. Cardiff has a significant population—no doubt, there will be some…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Evidence session on the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill
I can try to respond in general terms on the purpose of what is behind the Bill, and I'll ask David and Anna to help me too.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Evidence session on the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill
Chair, the WRA isn't with me today. I'm happy to have those conversations with them and to write to the committee with the details about how we will go about this in the context that Adam Price has raised this afternoon.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Evidence session on the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill
Of course, we use premiums with council tax, and so on.
