, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Thank you. Peter, did you want to come in?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
I'll bring Peter in in a second now. Two questions. The £150 million that you're intending to borrow, obviously interest rates have shot up recently, so how are you factoring the cost of borrowing into the budget? And—it might be a question for Andrew, I'm…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Thank you. So, if we move on to the fiscal levers that we do hold here—tax borrowing and forecasting: what approaches are being proposed in this budget to maximise the funding available to the Welsh Government for 2023-24, in terms of changes to taxation…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Thanks. Okay, thank you very much. Just whilst we're talking about the UK Government, in terms of funding and consequentials allocated in the autumn statement, has there been any improvement in transparency?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Eighty-seven million pounds left there, just in case.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Okay, thank you. So, there's just over £90-odd million? It depends if my sums are correct. No, 80—
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Peter.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Okay. Joyce, and then Peter.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
And the Wales reserve is currently at what level?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
With regard to reserves, you said all the reserves are allocated now, or—
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Right. Okay. Fair enough. So, let's move on to funding available to the Welsh Government. So, I'd like to look at the draft budget and transparency of UK Government funding. I know this has been a hot topic for us in the past. What level of reserves are being…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
And is that your intention, if you need to?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Right, okay. Yes, that's fine. So, in your outturn report for 2021, it reported His Majesty's Treasury had denied you the flexibility to offset your capital overspend with some of the revenue underspend. Is the Welsh Government still able to switch from…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
And is that closer to the eight or closer to the three?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
So, just to remind us: what's the average inflation that you've taken across this budget?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Okay. Moving on to the impact of inflation, and in the news in the last couple of days, I think, inflation is dropping a little bit. I'm just wondering if you could give us an idea of where you see inflation over the shorter period, anyway, and then what…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
And with making those decisions, is it individual Ministers who have been deciding those issues, deciding those solutions, and then coming back to you, or have you been giving them directions to say, 'Well, you should be extending this term, because this work…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Okay. Thanks, Peter. You talked about maybe pausing or deprioritising some of the funding. What real-terms impact is that going to have on that house building or on the communities for learning? Is that pushing end dates backwards? What's the thought process…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
I think Peter wants to come in.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Mike.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Lovely, great. Well, croeso cynnes. Thank you very much for making yourselves available today. I'd like to start with looking at the economic context and to clarify some of the overall principles and aims underpinning the budget, and how inflation has changed…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Croeso cynnes to the Minister. Nice to see you, hot off the back of your statement yesterday. So, we'll crack on with the first session with yourself. I think you're with us today and then you're with us in January. Could you introduce yourself and your…
, Finance Committee
Papers to note
Lovely, thank you. Great. Okay, we'll move on then.
, Finance Committee
Papers to note
We'll move on to the papers to note. There are a raft of papers to note with quite a few letters going backwards and forwards. I'd just like to pick up on paper to note 10. We've had a letter back from the First Minister about the implications of Bills, the…
, Finance Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
Good morning. Welcome to this meeting of the Finance Committee. We're going to be scrutinising the budget and we have the Minister with us this morning. We've had apologies from Rhianon, and I extend a warm welcome to Joyce; Joyce Watson is going to be…
