, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
So, I think the FM's been really clear that there's nothing that's contained within the co-operation agreement that is fundamentally inconsistent with our values as a Welsh Government and there's nothing in there that we wouldn't be happy to support. So, I…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
I think one of the most important things to recognise from the start is that the budget and the items that are funded within the budget in respect of the agreement are only part of the picture. I think that the full co-operation agreement includes lots of…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Yes. This continues to be a painful and disappointing process, unfortunately. I did meet with the new Financial Secretary to the Treasury last month to understand what further information is required in respect of the request to devolve powers for a vacant…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Yes, we work really closely with the Valuation Office Agency, and the VOA is already well advanced in its work to deliver on our revaluation for 1 April 2023. That will be based on market information and trends as at the antecedent valuation date of 1 April…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Well, the future, obviously, will still include our small business rates relief scheme, which a significant number of businesses do benefit from, but I think the fact that businesses at the moment, when they are still currently feeling the effects of the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Right, okay. So, £35 million has been provided in the draft budget to fund the freeze of the non-domestic rates multiplier for 2022-23, and then, of course, that's been taken into account in the calculation of the distributional amount. And this is then built…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Well, alongside the draft budget I published the annual tax policy report. It's one of the suite of documents that we published alongside the budget, which I really do commend, because they are really important in providing that full picture as to what the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
So, the over-programming isn't contingent on expectation of additional capital funding, it's more in respect of managing underspends, which do emerge in-year as projects perhaps slow down or various things prevent the full allocation being spent. So, it's a…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
So, in terms of taxation, the draft budget recognises the need for that balance between important investments in Welsh public services and then our responsibility to our taxpayers, which is obviously very, very acute in these unprecedented times. So, you'll…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
No, I would say that transparency continues to be a challenge, to be polite, in respect of relationships with the UK Government. So, you'll have seen in the spending review that, on 27 October, the Chancellor confirmed an extra £314 million revenue and £111…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
So, yes, health is able to manage its budget, and you'll see the budget expenditure lines published within the budget that we published last week for health.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
So, health will have to manage its budget in the normal way, so decisions for how health manages its budget will continue to lie with the Minister for health.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
It helps us when formulating our plans to maximise the benefit of all the funding available to us. So, it makes us more clear, really, in those plans and allows us to allocate funding more clearly at the start.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
—because we've introduced now a new fiscal strategy in terms of seeking to maximise the available funding? What that means is that, from 2023-24, the Wales reserve will be used to manage the in-year financial position, without holding any unallocated…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
We're still considering what allocations will be made at the final budget in respect of financial transactions capital. So, hopefully I'll be able to say more to you at that point, or certainly during the process, as we start to crystallise those requests…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
We're not working on the basis at the moment that the UK Government will allow us to carry over. It would be helpful if they did. But, at the moment, we are seeing significant pressures in relation to the omicron variant, so there's a lot that we need to do…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
We've been really pressing Treasury to allow us a full financial year [correction: a full additional financial year] to spend any additional funding that comes forward within a financial year, because that would help us a great deal with our budget…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Well, there's a lot going on at the moment in terms of our in-year management of resources, and we'll have a chance, I know, to get into that in some detail when we start the scrutiny process for the second supplementary budget. So, we won't go into that too…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
So, a stronger, fairer, greener Wales is what we're hoping to achieve through this budget, and I've been clear that this really has to be a budget for today because we're experiencing significant pressures and we're likely to see those pressures continue into…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Yes, of course. So, our budget preparations continue to respond to a really distinct set of challenges that are building on the unprecedented circumstances of the last few years. These preparations have really been shaped and impacted by the ongoing nature of…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session 1
Yes. Rebecca Evans, Minister for Finance and Local Government. I'll hand over to the team to introduce themselves.
, Plenary
& 10. The Local Elections (Principal Areas) (Wales) Rules 2021, and The Local Elections (Communities) (Wales) Rules 2021
No, I just thank again the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee for their consideration of the work. I know that colleagues will agree with me that having a set of rules specifically for Welsh local elections will vastly improve the accessibility…
, Plenary
& 10. The Local Elections (Principal Areas) (Wales) Rules 2021, and The Local Elections (Communities) (Wales) Rules 2021
Okay. Diolch, Llywydd. For the first time ever, the legislation to be debated consolidates the rules for local elections bilingually, and is specifically tailored to Welsh elections and our own franchise. I want to thank the Legislation, Justice and…
, Plenary
& 10. The Local Elections (Principal Areas) (Wales) Rules 2021, and The Local Elections (Communities) (Wales) Rules 2021
Great, okay. I'm going to switch to my paper copy because my screen isn't working properly.
, Plenary
& 10. The Local Elections (Principal Areas) (Wales) Rules 2021, and The Local Elections (Communities) (Wales) Rules 2021
I can hear you.
