Rebecca Evans: Diolch, Llywydd. I move the motion. The Corporate Joint Committees (General) (No. 2) (Wales) Regulations 2022, along with a handful of minor ancillary statutory instruments that will be laid shortly, represent the final substantive tranche of legislation to establish the legal framework for CJCs. I'm grateful to Members for their consideration of these regulations and the previous three...
Rebecca Evans: Only to say thank you very much to the Welsh Conservatives for their support today. I'm grateful to Members for their interest in this. As this is the final substantive tranche of legislation to establish the legal framework for CJCs, I just want to recognise all the work that's gone in by officials in getting us to this point, and also to the stakeholders who have helped us so greatly on the...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch, Llywydd. Today, I'm pleased to present the Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill to the Senedd for approval. I'd like to begin by putting on record my thanks to all the officials who've worked so diligently over many years on this Bill. As we know, tax is an important and growing area of the devolution settlement. As a Welsh Government, we need, like every executive, a...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much, and thank you to colleagues for their contributions this afternoon. I'm glad it's been recognised that the Bill is the result of a considerable body of work by many people, and I would like to put my thanks on record to all of them, and I'm sure that the collaborative way of working that I've tried to adopt has helped to strengthen the existing relationships, which I hope...
Rebecca Evans: Yes.
Rebecca Evans: I absolutely give that commitment to collaborate with the experts in the field. If colleagues don't want to listen to me today, let's listen to the experts in the field, because when my colleague Rhianon Passmore was asking the Chartered Institute of Taxation in committee if it would be an appropriate mechanism to use secondary legislation, they responded, I think, in the...
Rebecca Evans: I was coming on to that.
Rebecca Evans: I've clearly changed my mind, when you look at the ways in which the Bill has been dramatically amended. And the idea behind the Bill has been amended from a very wide-ranging power when we first consulted to something that is very narrow and targeted now. But the point I was going on to make is that I do recognise what you said about the way in which you responded to the evidence you've...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you, Llywydd. The first supplementary budget of 2022-23 is the first opportunity to amend budgetary plans for the current financial year, which were published and approved by the Senedd in March. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Finance Committee for its consideration of this budget and publication of its report. I'll provide a detailed response to its 12 recommendations...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you. As a number of colleagues have observed this afternoon, this supplementary budget really does take us back to what we used to know supplementary budgets as being before the pandemic, in the sense that there are very small movements, small allocations, and it's mostly technical in nature. So, much of what we've heard this afternoon and much of what I'll respond to doesn't relate...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch. I'd just like to say thank you to everybody for their contributions this afternoon, but particularly so to the Finance Committee for bringing forward the debate today. I do think that this has been an absolutely excellent innovation in recent years, and it really does help focus the mind in terms of understanding what the priorities of colleagues are. So, thank you so much for...
Rebecca Evans: Our fiscal position is very difficult. We face several uncertainties as a result of the ongoing events in Whitehall. We are yet to understand when the next UK Government fiscal event will be, and the UK Government hasn't, at this point, indicated that there will be any additional funding coming to Wales, and we absolutely cannot rely on any assumption that there will be additional funding....
Rebecca Evans: Today, I'm pleased to announce the launch of a public consultation on enabling local authorities to raise a visitor levy. The proposals set out in the consultation have been developed with Plaid Cymru as part of the co-operation agreement. Our collective ambition is to grow tourism for the good of Wales with economic growth, environmental sustainability and social and cultural well-being at...
Rebecca Evans: He finally got to a question in the very last sentence. No, this isn't the time to ditch this idea. This is the time to launch a consultation to engage widely and to take as many views as we possibly can on the idea that has come forward. This goes back, of course, to the Holtham work, which suggested that this might be a particular tax area that would be a good fit for Wales. It came forward...
Rebecca Evans: I'm very grateful for that series of questions, and for the contribution that started off, really, about talking about how this does not have to be something that causes antagonism between Government and the tourism sector. Quite the contrary, it can be something that can be co-produced effectively with the sector, understanding the benefits that could be brought to the local offering for...
Rebecca Evans: I'm very grateful to Alun Davies for his comments and his support for the consultation that is launched today. He's absolutely right that whilst we of course want to share what we have here in Wales with people from across the globe, we also need to ensure that tourism is done in a way that is sustainable and that doesn't harm communities. And it is important to get that balance right. Also,...
Rebecca Evans: So, I'll just begin with this point about it being a time of economic crisis, which it absolutely is. We're facing a cost-of-living crisis, and let's hope that the Chancellor comes forward with a seriously strong package of support for business when he makes his announcement later this week. We are talking about an overnight levy, but we're not talking about it being introduced overnight. The...
Rebecca Evans: So—[Interruption.]
Rebecca Evans: So, I will address that point where the Member asked about the difference between a tourism tax and a visitor levy and why the language around that changed, because I do think that’s an important question. The reason that we moved away from the word 'tourism' to 'visitor' was because a tourism levy or a tourism tax didn’t fully capture everybody who would be undertaking an overnight stay...
Rebecca Evans: So, I'll begin by just responding to that very specific question in terms of local authorities being penalised through the RSG. I just want to be really clear that there is no link whatsoever to the revenue support grant from this work at all. This is about giving local authorities the power to choose to raise additional funding within their areas; it has no knock-on impact whatsoever on the...
