Mark Drakeford: I published the 2017-18 provisional settlement, including the proposed allocation for Torfaen, on 19 October. The settlement is now out for consultation, prior to making a final determination in December.
Mark Drakeford: In the limited time available, I considered a range of options for supporting businesses affected by the revaluation. Our fully funded, £10 million transitional relief scheme is targeted at those most affected. Unlike the scheme in England, it will not penalise ratepayers whose liability is reducing.
Mark Drakeford: The Welsh Government is fully aligned with the need for innovative solutions to the delivery of public services. We work with local government in a variety of ways to that end, for examples through invest-to-save and innovate-to-save schemes and through the multi-agency effective services group, chaired by Jeff Farah, chief constable of Gwent.
Mark Drakeford: The provision of tax services in Wales has been a regular feature of discussions with HMRC, particularly in the context of tax devolution.
Mark Drakeford: It is the responsibility of all the public services under the Act to contribute toward all of the Goals. All of the Welsh Government’s 14 well-being objectives, published on 4 November, are designed to contribute to multiple goals, including the goal of ‘A resilient Wales’.
Mark Drakeford: The introduction of the Landfill Disposals Tax (Wales) Bill marks another step forward in our tax devolution journey. It’s the second of two taxes that are being devolved to Wales. This follows the introduction of the Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Bill, introduced in September, and the passage of the Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Act, passed...
Mark Drakeford: Can I thank the Member for his broad welcome for the Bill and its purposes? He made some important points at the beginning about the alignment between taxes that are coming to Wales and our policy agenda. This has been a very successful tax as far as changing behaviour is concerned. The total tonnage of waste in Wales going to landfill fell by 52 per cent between 2001 and 2013. The Office for...
Mark Drakeford: Thank you very much to David Melding for those questions. He’s right to point out that this is in an unusual tax, in that it has, at its heart, an ambition to put itself out of business, and it’s succeeding in doing that. I think there is genuine scope for making the law simpler and clearer. The original landfill tax was the product of the early 1990s. It has grown up since then, through...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Mike Hedges for both those questions. Of course, I recognise the point he makes about the border and sensitivity to different rates on either side of it. I will not be declaring my hand in relation to tax rates in this Bill until the autumn of next year. I notice that, in Scotland, where my colleague there has had to do this already, the decision was to set identical rates with those...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for those questions. To address the last one first, ‘waste tourism’ is an inelegant phrase. It’s used to cover the circumstances that Mike Hedges referred to. The research shows that people taking waste to landfill are relatively sensitive to relatively small changes in the rate of tax to be paid. What I’m keen to avoid is waste being taken on long journeys to more...
Mark Drakeford: Thank you very much to Simon for those questions. I can confirm to begin with that there is no intention to change the policy in this area. If we can get the policy to do more, then that would be a good thing, but there is no change in the intention. On the community scheme, we are going to do it like this because it is simpler. We don’t have to use the powers in the new Bill because we...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for what she said at the end of her contribution in relation to community projects, and the work of WRAP. I look forward to being able to share with all Members of the National Assembly the paper that I will produce on the community fund, and I completely appreciate that almost all Members here will have had some experience of it in their own constituencies and I’m very...
Mark Drakeford: Can I thank Dawn Bowden both for her question and for her company yesterday on the snow-capped hills of Merthyr? As we stood there, our only consolation was that members of the media had been sent out 25 minutes before us and had been enjoying the view for a lot longer than we needed to. The points she makes about the community fund are well made, and it was very good to hear directly both...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Nick Ramsay for those three questions. He’s absolutely right to point to the importance of the Welsh Revenue Authority, and our need to build up its capacity rapidly now over the coming months. I know that he’s taken a close interest in our plans to advertise for the chair and the board of the revenue authority, and to make sure that it has the necessary skills available to it. I...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Jenny Rathbone for the welcome she’s given to the Bill. The tax evasion point she makes at the beginning is one we’ve touched on a number of times this afternoon. In some ways, as she says, it’s understandable. Stamp duty land tax is quite hard to evade because the house is there for everybody to see. Waste is much, much more open to evasion behaviour. I could use the time of...
Mark Drakeford: It may well be, Dirprwy Lywydd, but it’s not relevant to the Bill. The Bill has nothing to say on either of those matters directly.
Mark Drakeford: I thank Andrew R.T. Davies for both those questions. It’s not the purpose of the Bill to extend the scope of capture, other than in illegal dumping of waste, which will now be brought within the tax. It’s a point that hasn’t been raised so far this afternoon, but it may be important for me to say that, of course, this tax is captured by the fiscal framework, so, as the amount of tax...
Mark Drakeford: ‘Taking Wales Forward’ contains a range of actions to improve both the health and wellbeing of older people. The actions focus preventative measures; early intervention; timely access to services and continuing to drive effective partnership working between health and social care to deliver improved care and support for older people.
Mark Drakeford: I am very encouraged by the early results of action to implement the Housing (Wales) Act 2014. Statistics show homelessness was successfully prevented last year for 65 per cent of households threatened with homelessness owed our new prevention duty. We are supporting local authorities to build further on this very positive start.
Mark Drakeford: We continue to support partnership working between the charity and the Welsh NHS that has seen the successful introduction of the world leading Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service Cymru.
