Mark Drakeford: The Permanent Secretary has written to Assembly Members and solicitors acting on behalf of Carl Sargeant’s family with the draft terms of reference. Mr Bowen QC will discuss the terms of reference with the family. Following this, and after discussion with Mr Bowen QC, the Permanent Secretary will then determine the final terms of reference.
Mark Drakeford: A number of positive and progressive steps are being taken to ensure the Welsh language is promoted and developed in Newport. Welsh language standards, WESPs, continued funding for organisations such as Menter Casnewydd, the Urdd, Cymraeg i Blant, and Mudiad Meithrin continue to promote and support the language locally.
Mark Drakeford: The Welsh Government condemns all forms of violence against women including female genital mutilation. We are working in partnership to end these harmful practices in Wales. FGM forms an important part of our national training framework by promoting awareness and prevention across the Welsh public service.
Mark Drakeford: The Commission on Justice in Wales has begun its work and I expect it to report during 2019.
Mark Drakeford: The 'Prosperity for All' national strategy and economic action plan sets out the actions we are taking to improve the economy of the Cynon Valley and across Wales.
Mark Drakeford: Welsh Government provides equality grant funding to Stonewall Cymru. Part of this funding supports a transgender engagement officer to lead on trans equality issues. They work within communities at a grass roots level to hear trans voices and ensure they are fully engaged with the services designed to support them.
Mark Drakeford: Age Cymru have provided evidence about the experiences of older people. We are using this to drive improvement and deliver better outcomes for older people in Wales. Social care is an area of national importance.
Mark Drakeford: Thank you, Llywydd. In just over a month’s time, as Members will be very aware, the first Welsh taxes in hundreds of years will start to be collected, as land transaction tax and landfill disposals tax are switched on. However, tax devolution must not only simply be about replacing one tax system with another. We have a responsibility to think more innovatively about tax, about how taxes...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I turn first of all to a disposable plastics tax. There has been considerable interest in, and support for, a tax on disposable plastics in Wales, and a number of Assembly Members have made persuasive cases for making a plastics tax our first priority in this exercise. Since the original shortlist was published, however, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the autumn...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for what he said, particularly towards the end of his contribution. I absolutely share his anxiety that we design the way in which powers can be drawn down to Wales for these new purposes—that it is carried out in a way that has a clear distinction between the responsibilities that are properly conducted by the UK Government and then the responsibilities of this National...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Simon Thomas very much for those questions, and I thank him for Plaid Cymru's support for testing the new system that we have, and to keep an eye on the vacant land tax and how we use that to test the new system. On the one question that Simon Thomas raised on that tax, in Ireland, the tax goes to every person and authority responsible for the vacant land, whether it's in the...
Mark Drakeford: How far will we be involved in the UK Government's work on the call for evidence? Well, I was very glad to have an extended conversation with the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury. I think we've secured a Welsh voice in the call for evidence and being able to shape it here in Wales to make sure that Welsh views are successfully transmitted into that process, that where there are Welsh...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I thank the Member for those remarks. He and I have agreed previously in the Chamber that paying for social care is one of those issues that successive Governments have failed to grapple with, and to produce a successful policy conclusion. Many of us here will remember our colleague Gwenda Thomas who produced a Green Paper on paying for social care nearly a decade ago here in this...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I thank Mike Hedges, both for his strong consistent support for the approach we've taken in the two taxes that will come into being on 1 April, but also for what he said this afternoon. Tourism taxes are normal around the world. We know there's a growing interest in them across our border, in both Birmingham and Bath, and what I've said this afternoon—as I've tried to make...
Mark Drakeford: Well, almost all the questions the Member raises are proper ones, but he was right in the very beginning that they are proper for a point in the process when the power is available to us in the National Assembly, and not at a point where we couldn't do anything in this field, whether we could answer all those questions or not. I make three points in reply to what the Member has said. First of...
Mark Drakeford: Can I thank Jane Hutt for all those questions? Many of these debates began during the years in which she exercised the responsibilities as finance Minister here in the Assembly, and I know how familiar she will be with them. I can give her an assurance that I have discussed all four tax proposals with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, particularly in relation to the social care tax, to get...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Adam Price for all of those questions. We haven't made our minds up on the final question because it's still too early, we think, in the process. In relation to the second home supplement within the land transaction tax, there are two parts of the work programme that have been specifically agreed with Plaid Cymru. We promised to produce a regional analysis of that, once the WRA was up...
Mark Drakeford: Dirprwy Lywydd, I thank Vikki Howells for that question. I'm looking forward very much to working with her if we get the power to introduce a vacant land tax, because of the long-standing interest that she's had in this matter. I'm glad we're ending this discussion by going back to the usefulness of a vacant land tax in the area of urban dereliction and abandoned sites. We can all of us...
Mark Drakeford: Over the next 15 years the £1.3 billion Swansea Bay city region city deal aims to boost the local economy by £1.8 billion and generate almost 10,000 new jobs, driving growth across the south-west Wales region.
Mark Drakeford: Agreement has been reached with the UK Government that land transaction tax will go live on 1 April 2018. Registration for agents to file returns online will begin shortly. A calculator of LTT is now available on the WRA website and our awareness raising programme continues.
