, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
That's fine. Diolch.
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
Yes, and I'm clear in what I've said. I've outlined where the pressures are. You've referenced the particular pressure that our health boards have announced publicly themselves, where they are on their annual assessment of their pressures. And on both…
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
Well, I guess that the time for scrutiny of that is particularly at the second—well, it'll be the third—supplementary budget, because at that point that funding will have been allocated in some way. I've already indicated as clearly as I can the various…
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
Via the local authority education grant is my understanding of it, but I'm not an expert in how that works.
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
ALN distribution. I'll leave you to talk about the distribution formula, Andrew.
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
I probably am not the person to explain in detail the Government's negotiating strategy with the teachers union, other than to say that the Government is very keen for those negotiations to continue. The allocation of funding within the budget that was passed…
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
Well, I would say that this is funding for local authorities to work with school partners and other providers to ensure that they start planning how to clearly assess need locally—that continues to be an issue that is a challenge within this provision, amid…
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
You'll be aware of the discussion that happened about the proposal by the Government earlier in the year of allocating £40 million for ALN. Evidently, there wasn't a majority within the Senedd to approve that. So, following negotiations, that proposal has…
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
Well, the first part of the answer to that refers to the initial aspect of the questioning on the in-year pressures that the Welsh Government has on the NHS and other pressures. We do need to ensure that we have a degree of flexibility and unallocated funding…
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
The allocation of the supplementary budget is as is in front of you, as agreed by the Welsh Government. The imperative for the supplementary budget in terms of additional allocation was on the waiting list initiative, and that's outlined here. The work in…
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
That will be a matter for the Minister for health in particular. It's not an allocation that this supplementary budget has brought about. The allocation for the NHS in this supplementary budget has been in particular around the waiting list initiative and the…
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
That's in the core budget.
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
So, they're not new allocations. Sorry, that's what—
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
You'll have to explain to me where the £34 million for workforce is. So, if you can—
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
The most recent figures I've seen have been down on where that position had been. We are retaining, as you know, in this budget unallocated money that will be considered later as we know how the work on working within budgets has worked, both in health but…
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
It will be dealt with by continuing to work with the health boards and other health organisations on their pressures. That work is continuing and that is being sought to be addressed. As you know, various health boards in areas right across Wales are looking…
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
Yes, you're right to point to the financial pressure in the NHS and the pressure that puts on the in-year position of the Welsh Government. There have been financial controls put in place across the Welsh Government, but also, in particular, the health…
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
Given the change of just one small part—£60 million, yes, but just one change from the previous budget as scrutinised fully by you—then I think it's proportionate. I'd say that, in thinking about this and in having been outside of Government and thinking…
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
To start, I guess the story of the first supplementary budget is well known, in that the vote on that supplementary budget was not accepted by the Senedd. Therefore, over the summer and into this term, as a Government, we've sought to find agreement with a…
, Finance Committee
Second Supplementary Budget 2026-27: Evidence Session
I'm Elin Jones, Cabinet Minister. You can introduce yourselves.
, Plenary
Statement by the Cabinet Minister for Finance: An Update on Council Tax
The cost for the next financial year to continue the programme would have been around £2.4 million. That's just to progress the revaluation to implementation stage in 2028. On the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the work that they've done to model the changes…
, Plenary
Statement by the Cabinet Minister for Finance: An Update on Council Tax
Okay, that's one for you. [Laughter.] I'm sure that Mike Hedges, and others, will want to be part of that debate, actually. It could be quite an interesting one. Just to respond to those points, I'll go back to the main point—the main thrust of why this…
, Plenary
Statement by the Cabinet Minister for Finance: An Update on Council Tax
That's probably slightly beyond what I expected to commit to this afternoon, so I won't go there, if you don't mind. But I think that's a perfectly reasonable question to be asking in the context of public finances as they are, in terms of how our public…
, Plenary
Statement by the Cabinet Minister for Finance: An Update on Council Tax
Yes. Thank you, and thank you for recognising the difficulties that local councils themselves face in their own running of public services, with the public finance settlement currently, and the pressures on their finances in running the services that they're…
, Plenary
Statement by the Cabinet Minister for Finance: An Update on Council Tax
Thank you for your contribution, the words that you've said and the general approach you have taken to revaluation. You're an enthusiastic opponent of revaluation. I've come to this more reluctantly, and that explains, maybe, the pace of the decision. It…
