Mark Drakeford: Legislation from 2010 states that someone is not acting as a child minder if they care for a child who is a relative. We cannot therefore currently fund such child minders under our childcare offer.
Mark Drakeford: The economic action plan and the Valleys ministerial taskforce delivery plan outline our co-ordinated approach to ensure the benefits from major infrastructure projects are maximised to support economic development in the northern Valleys. They are also focused on developing the foundational economy and improving support for entrepreneurs across the Valleys.
Mark Drakeford: Welsh Government has played an important role in delivering regeneration with a range of partners to support resilient communities in all parts of Wales. Since 2014, the Welsh Government has provided almost £17 million under the Vibrant and Viable Places programme to support projects in Newport.
Mark Drakeford: The environment and well-being of future generations Acts provide the unique legislative framework to support biodiversity action across Wales. Flowing from this legislation, the nature recovery action plan sets out our plans to achieve our ambition to reverse the decline in biodiversity by 2020 and beyond.
Mark Drakeford: Pension matters are not devolved. The UK Government sponsors pension advisory services. However, the Welsh Government provides grant funding to not-for-profit advice providers to support vulnerable people with free and independent advice on debt and money management issues.
Mark Drakeford: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. The second supplementary budget is a standard part of the annual financial management process. It is a final opportunity for us to adapt the budgetary proposals for this financial year, which were approved by the Assembly last year. I would like to thank the Finance Committee for their scrutiny work on this second supplementary budget. I will be...
Mark Drakeford: The second supplementary budget, therefore, Dirprwy Lywydd, details adjustments as a result of transfers within ministerial expenditure groups, transfers between MEGs, allocations from reserves, changes to the overall departmental expenditure limit, including consequentials and other adjustments resulting from HM Treasury decisions, and latest annually managed expenditure forecasts agreed...
Mark Drakeford: Deputy Presiding Officer, as I said earlier, these supplementary budgets are mainly administrative, and this budget provides details in terms of various adaptations that are to be made to our budget during this financial year. These include any changes to the Welsh block grant, reviews of the annually managed spending forecast, and other transfers between and within ministerial portfolios....
Mark Drakeford: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. May I thank Simon Thomas for his contribution? I look forward to considering the conclusions in the Finance Committee report. I'm sure that there are things there that we can learn from, and I look forward to responding to that report. I heard the comments of the committee Chair on financial transaction capital and capital more generally. We are trying to...
Mark Drakeford: I'm very happy, of course, to write to Adam Price on the specific points that he raised.FootnoteLink I believe I'm right in saying that the changes within the education MEG are designed to support the agreement that we've reached with Plaid Cymru, and that's why you see money moving around. It's as a result of our agreement to make sure that we can deliver it, rather than anything else. On...
Mark Drakeford: Yes, they do, Dirprwy Lywydd, exactly that. I did set out in my letter to Mike Hedges, which I've placed in the library, the rules that surround financial transaction capital, including the fact that 80 per cent of it has to be paid back, not the full amount. That is a bit of a recognition by the UK Government that there is a risk involved and that not all FT capital will be repaid. There are...
Mark Drakeford: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. The UK's exit from the European Union represents the most significant and demanding challenge, constitutionally, legally, economically, that we in Wales have faced since the advent of devolution. The uncertainty that surrounds both the process and the outcome has the potential to cause enormous damage to our nation. It is the scale of the challenge, the continuing...
Mark Drakeford: I will.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, of course I never go into any discussion looking to sell Wales's interest short, and I'll continue to work with colleagues elsewhere in the United Kingdom to make sure that the EU withdrawal Bill can be put in a position where we could recommend it to the floor of this Assembly, and if we can't achieve that then we will make no such recommendation to you. Llywydd, the Bill in...
Mark Drakeford: I will.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I hope that the Bill has a sunset clause built into it in the sense that I still hope that we will reach an agreement with the UK Government and with the Scottish Government on amendments that we could jointly see put down in the House of Lords that would render the continuity Bill unnecessary because we would have achieved our objectives by an alternative, and we have always...
Mark Drakeford: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. Can I thank all Members who have taken part in this very thoughtful debate? Let me begin with the last contribution by Mark Isherwood and confirm to Members of the Assembly that I will indeed be going to a meeting with the UK Government and the Scottish Government on Thursday of this week, and that I will go to that meeting in exactly the spirit that Mark Isherwood...
Mark Drakeford: I certainly do.
Mark Drakeford: It just is not sufficient, Llywydd. It just doesn't measure up to the seriousness of the position. Mick Antoniw got it exactly right, that if there is no agreement, if this legislature could not provide its legislative consent, then we have to act to put in place a set of arrangements that would operate for Welsh businesses and Welsh public services in the event that the UK Government did...
Mark Drakeford: We are continuing to invest in transport infrastructure in Mid and West Wales, as set out in the national transport finance plan. We are also addressing pinch points on the trunk road network through a dedicated programme.
