, Finance Committee
Audit Wales – Scrutiny of the Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24 and the Annual Plan 2024-25: Evidence session
Thank you, and I'd be really surprised if you had all indicators green. I would say, 'Well, actually, there's something wrong there', you know, because you should always be striving for further improvement. Anyway, that's not my point. I was just going to…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Is there a figure of spend that we've had to invest around this?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Thanks for touching on the well-being, because I was going to ask what your main findings were so far in your interim review. But I'll move on to the last question, really, one that is quite pertinent at the moment, a topic that is taxing a lot of us at the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
I was going to be asking you some questions around staffing, but I think we've covered an awful lot of those, so I'll skip some of that, unless there's anything—. There are no areas of staffing that you've had to disinvest in, so that you can do something…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
May I just put on record that we really welcome what briefings we've already had, which have been really helpful, so we're not cold to this.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
No, I accept that. They carried forward—the benefit is from not having them, if you like. The efficiency will carry forward into next year.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
So, just to—. So, you've still got 12 vacancies currently, because you were looking for 16, you've only recruited four, so there are 12 vacancies in the Commission at the moment.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
I think that's all—
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
I think it’s always acceptable to have new burdens, and they have to be funded accordingly. That doesn’t mean to say that the lens of efficiency can’t be continued, even through expansion.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
It’s quite interesting this, isn’t it, because I’ve made the case, from your position, as a council leader, to my colleagues every time, because we used to have to. Every year, I made the case, for years, and I’d try to convince members that we needed to do…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Sorry, Rhianon.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Okay.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Right, okay.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
I was surprised that that would be coded under 'Members' salaries and accommodation costs' not more infrastructural maintenance.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
I was just trying to—
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Right, okay. So, I was just trying to work through what those additional—. Because it comes under Member salaries and related costs, £1.3 million; so, it must be around accommodation, and things like that, for Members—ongoing accommodation changes and needs…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
No, it's just on infrastructure. Just looking through the high-level budget stuff, it says that Member salaries and related costs have increased by £1.3 million, but there's no increase in actual salary costs for Members. It says in our budget group brief…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Thanks for that. Thank you.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Yes. So, what does a 5 per cent staff pay budget increase actually mean in cash increase?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
That was for last year, right, yes.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
And that's obviously new staff and pay deals, and the pay deal is £456,000.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Nine per cent of the 11 per cent total operational cost is staff related.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
So, you've got staff-related increases of 9 per cent. When we talk of that, do we say, 'Well, 9 per cent of that 11 per cent is staffing', or what is it in money terms?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Thank you for that. I think I've got it. So, the operational budget we know is going up by 11 per cent. We recognise the pay deal, which is 5 per cent over what you were budgeting for—3 per cent.
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education
Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, and I'm conscious that you've answered some of my points in your previous response to Laura Anne Jones. But, contrary to common belief, private schools are not just for children of millionaires; many aspiring parents want the…
