, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 5
Okay. Thank you. I'll go over to Mike Hedges. Diolch.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 5
And going on from what Alun was saying, is there any joint working going on on policy development in that area? Do you work in your silos or do you try and collaborate on some of that policy development?
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 5
Alun, if you want to come on this, then I'll go over to Mike, and then we'll carry on. Alun.
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 5
Okay. Does rotating the chair help, do you think, in trying to combat some of that—making sure that a different voice is heard from the chair every time that you meet? Does that help or is it a hindrance?
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 5
So, helping with communications and getting that message across to the Treasury, is that one of the strengths of the FISC arrangement? Or maybe you'd talk about what some of those strengths and some of the weaknesses are, and is that communication, or is that…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 5
Some of the principles that were established as a result of the inter-governmental relations review underlined that mutual respect for the separate and shared roles and responsibilities of the Government. It’s built on trust as well. Thinking about what…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 5
On that bit, is it then an attitude towards devolution that's based within the Treasury that it doesn't matter as much? Because it's a respect thing, in a way, if it's last-minute. Do you get a sense that it's that, or is it just a, 'Well, it's just something…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 5
So, you talked a lot about personal and interpersonal relationship building there, but there is a power imbalance between the Scottish Government and Treasury. Relationships, as you say, can only go that far. What's been your impression of that power…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 5
Thank you, and I think we'll touch on quite a few of those aspects that you've talked about. I'd like to start by looking at the Scottish Government's relationship with the Treasury, and then some of the principles around the inter-governmental relations…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 5
Well, you're very welcome. Thank you very much for coming this morning. It's great to see you and great that you've made the time to help us with this important inquiry that we're doing. We've allocated questions and we'll have some questions as we go along…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 5
So, we'll move on to item 2 this morning, which is our substantive piece of work that we want to do this morning, and it's the fifth evidence session in our fiscal inter-governmental relations inquiry. We're very glad to have our witness with us this morning…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 5
We'll move on, therefore, to item 2.
, Finance Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
A warm welcome to this meeting of the Finance Committee. It's good to see you all this morning. This meeting is being broadcast live on Senedd.tv, and the Record of Proceedings will be published as usual. This meeting is bilingual, and interpretation is…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Cabinet Office
Thank you for that answer. It would be very useful to see that tracked through in terms of where it's moved to and from. I'm hoping that level of detail will be available in that. As you've said, as June approaches, we do anticipate the imminent publication…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Cabinet Office
Diolch, Llywydd. Cabinet Secretary, since your reappointment to the Welsh Government, we've heard a number of commitments from your colleagues relating to their portfolios. These announcements have a bearing on budgets and on the bottom lines of each…
, Petitions Committee
Paper to note - P-06-1387 Provide humanitarian aid to Gaza
Just on that, are we able to follow up with the new Cabinet Secretary, because, obviously, our initial letter went to the Minister for Social Justice? There's now been a Cabinet Secretary change—just to highlight the letter that we sent, even if it's our…
, Petitions Committee
Updates to previous petitions
I think with the change of Minister or Cabinet Secretary, now, with a new one in place, it would be good to write, because when this first came about, it would've been a different Minister. So, I concur with Peter there to write, just to put it on the Cabinet…
, Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Diolch, Cadeirydd. It speaks to a little bit of the last petitions we were talking about: if we want to get people out of cars, then we need to have a bus service, especially in rural Ceredigion. It's that bit about mixed messages, isn't it? The service was…
, Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Just picking up on what John said there with regard to the alternatives, it has been particularly slow in bringing public transport alternatives that would take people off the roads and onto trains and onto buses—the Government has been particularly slow in…
, Petitions Committee
New Petitions
No. And I think, with the vested interest of driving an electric vehicle, having electric vehicle charging points and that infrastructure will help drive some of this down again, which might mean, with the safety features of modern cars as well, it will help.
, Petitions Committee
New Petitions
I drive an electric car, yes.
, Petitions Committee
New Petitions
I concur with Peter and with John. As technology gets better and as things improve, we need to keep monitoring this. There's not a lot more we can do with these two petitions as they are, but it highlights some of the frustrations that are out there. But…
, Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Diolch. This is something that I've taken an interest in since I've been elected to this place. It's something that is a little bit difficult for us to legislate on because of the competency. I think it's just the Westminster Government that can legislate on…
, Petitions Committee
New Petitions
I've suggested closing the petition down, but if we are writing, do we need to close it down or do we leave it open for now and see what response we get?
, Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Yes. I'd like to thank the petitioner for this petition and to say it was actually in the Plaid Cymru manifesto to further this, so it's no surprise that I'm in favour of taking this forward. Because, yes, we are the land of song, and anybody who was watching…
