21 January 2026 , Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
Well, Chair, I can give some more detail, if it's helpful, of those, as I said, slightly smaller allocations, but nevertheless important allocations. So, to give you just three or four examples, if I could, there is £5 million that is new in the budget for…
21 January 2026 , Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
The level of decision making there would not be for me to take, Chair; that would be for my colleague the health Minister. But, as it happens, I'm aware of the investment that he is making in social prescribing for exactly the reasons that Mike Hedges has…
21 January 2026 , Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
I think that the settlement at 4.5 per cent increase in resource available to local government, with no local authority lower than 4 per cent, some local authorities above 6 per cent, is at the best end of what Welsh local government would have genuinely…
21 January 2026 , Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
Well, I am quite sure that, as a small Government, it should be possible to do better than we do on some of those things. I think where we have succeeded is in bearing down on a risk that is there always, that a decision is made in one part of an…
21 January 2026 , Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
Chair, in the budget documentation that we published, the budget report, I think we say explicitly that, despite the additional investment in health and social care, it will be another challenging year for the NHS next year, for all the reasons that you've…
21 January 2026 , Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
Thank you, Chair. So, there are a number of significant changes between draft and final, and then there are a larger number of smaller but nevertheless important changes to report as well. In terms of the large changes, there are three or four things to draw…
21 January 2026 , Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
Thank you very much, Chair. I'm Mark Drakeford, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language. With me this morning are Andrew Jeffreys, head of the Welsh Treasury, and Emma Watkins, who leads on the budget work for us.
20 January 2026 , Plenary
The Landfill Disposals Tax (Tax Rates) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025
Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. In the draft outline budget statement in October, I set out the Welsh Government’s intended approach to increasing the rates of landfill disposal tax, or LDT, from 1 April. However, following the UK Government's setting of its…
20 January 2026 , Plenary
The Non-Domestic Rating (Provision of Information About Changes of Circumstances) (Wales) Regulations 2026
I am grateful to the Constitution, Legislation and Justice Committee for their consideration of these regulations. I have considered the response to the two technical scrutiny points that were raised. A small number of corrections will be made to the…
20 January 2026 , Plenary
The Non-Domestic Rating (Provision of Information About Changes of Circumstances) (Wales) Regulations 2026
These regulations form part of our package of measures to address avoidance of non-domestic rates. This package has been developed through joint working with local government over several years. Under current arrangements, ratepayers are not obliged to notify…
20 January 2026 , Plenary
The Non-Domestic Rating (Provision of Information About Changes of Circumstances) (Wales) Regulations 2026
I move the motion, Llywydd.
20 January 2026 , Plenary
The Council Tax (Discounts, Disregards and Exemptions) (Wales) Regulations 2026
Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I am happy to keep the matter under review and, indeed, to meet any of those who wish to discuss the changes. The Member is right, class H exemption does introduce a one-year limit for properties held by ministers. I don't think there…
20 January 2026 , Plenary
The Council Tax (Discounts, Disregards and Exemptions) (Wales) Regulations 2026
I'm grateful to the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee for their consideration of these regulations. I agree with points 1 to 4 and point 6. These will be corrected before the regulations are made. I ask Members to approve these regulations today.
20 January 2026 , Plenary
The Council Tax (Discounts, Disregards and Exemptions) (Wales) Regulations 2026
These regulations are a clear statement of the Welsh Government's commitment to fairness. They deliver on our programme for government commitment in this Senedd term to review the 53 different categories of discount, disregard and exemptions, which had grown…
20 January 2026 , Plenary
The Council Tax (Discounts, Disregards and Exemptions) (Wales) Regulations 2026
Thank you, Llywydd. I move the motion.
20 January 2026 , Plenary
The Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements and Default Scheme) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2026
I thank the committee again for their detailed work and, as I said, the regulations will be corrected before I sign them off, if the Senedd agrees to them.
20 January 2026 , Plenary
The Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements and Default Scheme) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2026
I'm pleased to bring these regulations forward today, as we have done every year, because they represent one of the most direct and effective ways we can support those who need it the most. The council tax reduction scheme provides direct financial help to…
20 January 2026 , Plenary
The Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements and Default Scheme) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2026
Thank you very much, Llywydd. I move the motion.
13 January 2026 , Plenary
& 12. The general principles of the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill and the financial resolution in respect of the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill
Thank you. And that was the issue of spare rooms. To be clear with Janet, if somebody lets a whole house out, they will be required to register it and they will be required to have a licence, even if they only do it for a week. The point that Rhys ab Owen was…
13 January 2026 , Plenary
& 12. The general principles of the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill and the financial resolution in respect of the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill
No, I don't agree with that. There is an explanation why so much of the legislation has been end-loaded, and that's because the first year of this Senedd term was a year still caught up in the COVID crisis, when it was very difficult to bring forward…
13 January 2026 , Plenary
& 12. The general principles of the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill and the financial resolution in respect of the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill
I've heard lots of comments about the time, the timetable and so on. This was a Bill signalled in the early part of this Senedd term. It was there in the co-operation agreement. We brought forward the registration Bill, a companion Bill to this Bill, earlier…
13 January 2026 , Plenary
& 12. The general principles of the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill and the financial resolution in respect of the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill
Well, I thank Siân Gwenllian for that. Llywydd, I’m going to accept nine out of 10 of the recommendations in the report by ETRA, but I don't accept recommendations 3 and 4 because I don't want a greater delay. There are good things that we can do here, and…
13 January 2026 , Plenary
& 12. The general principles of the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill and the financial resolution in respect of the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill
I think the argument that the Member advances is that you've got to wait for something to go wrong before you act. Now imagine that. Imagine that you have to wait until somebody books somewhere that turns out not to have a fire certificate, not to have a gas…
13 January 2026 , Plenary
& 12. The general principles of the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill and the financial resolution in respect of the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill
Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. The future for Welsh tourism has to be to move up the quality threshold. That is its great strength, when it's able to provide a quality product, that people know when they come to Wales they will get what they have paid for…
13 January 2026 , Plenary
& 12. The general principles of the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill and the financial resolution in respect of the Development of Tourism and Regulation of Visitor Accommodation (Wales) Bill
In order to put these principles to work, the Bill creates a licensing scheme for self-contained self-catering accommodation, and it provides a way in which that licensing scheme can be extended to other types of accommodation in the future. The system…
