Rebecca Evans: Thank you for recognising the important work that RCT have been doing in terms of investing in their staff to retain and value them. I think that's been really important, and an excellent intervention on their behalf. The Welsh Government is currently working with partners to better understand the full implications of our move towards ensuring that all staff in the social care sector are paid...
Rebecca Evans: In the current financial year, we provided local government with a 3.8 per cent increase in their core budget, building on the significant increase we provided in 2020-21. In addition, we have made over £325 million available through the local government hardship fund to help local government to respond to the pandemic.
Rebecca Evans: I would commend the Sell2Wales dashboard to the Member and to all colleagues as an opportunity to have a really important snapshot of the situation in terms of procurement here in Wales. So, between July and September there were 1,078 contracts awarded to suppliers on that, and of those, 706 were awarded to Welsh suppliers. So, clearly we want to keep improving on those figures, and there are...
Rebecca Evans: Yes, I do agree that the fiscal framework and the statement of funding policy, which sits alongside that, do need to be revisited, and particularly so in relation to fiscal flexibilities. I have the opportunity tomorrow, at a finance Ministers' quadrilateral, to make exactly that point, alongside Ministers from Northern Ireland and Scotland, who share our concern that we should be able to...
Rebecca Evans: Well, the Minister for Climate Change has written to the UK Government, to urge them to take all possible action to protect people and businesses at this point. And I know that she received a briefing from Ofgem on 21 September, where she sought assurances on the part of consumers. In terms of businesses, clearly, we are concerned about the impact of the increase of energy costs, as we are in...
Rebecca Evans: Llywydd, I'll be publishing the Welsh Government's draft budget and departmental budgets on 20 December, and there will be ample opportunity for colleagues to scrutinise the draft budget following that.
Rebecca Evans: Llywydd, I do try to be as helpful as I possibly can be in questions, but I'm not going to be drawn into any commentary on discussions that may be taking place between my party and Plaid Cymru. I don't think this is an appropriate time to do that. That said, I think that there are important things that the Conservatives can be bringing to this discussion in terms of what's good for people...
Rebecca Evans: Llywydd, I'm not going to mediate between the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru on the floor of the Senedd. I will leave that to them to have those discussions themselves.
Rebecca Evans: Well, there's a deep irony in that question, of course, because the UK Government is not funding the Welsh Government in respect of the £375 million that we would previously have received from the European Union, and much of that funding actually went into investing in skills, employability, apprenticeships, the Development Bank of Wales and other strategic infrastructure projects. So,...
Rebecca Evans: I want to see the UK Government follow through on its commitment to work with the grain of devolved Government policies. In areas such as net zero and addressing regional inequalities, there are opportunities for action on investment that will really make a difference for people in Wales.
Rebecca Evans: Thank you. Llywydd, Jayne Bryant's absolutely right to recognise that the UK Government's own analysis does show that HS2 has the potential to harm Wales, and particularly south-west Wales, and yet they still categorise it as an England-and-Wales project. They do have the opportunity to address both this and the historic underfunding of and underinvestment in rail in Wales at the forthcoming...
Rebecca Evans: Well, over the course of the previous Senedd term, we created more than 100,000 apprenticeships, and that exceeded our target, in fact, but, this time, we're even more ambitious, recognising the need that the economy has for these skills, and we've raised our target to 125,000 starts by 2025. So, clearly we've recognised that there is a great need in this area, and are continuing to invest,...
Rebecca Evans: Welsh Government's been working very hard to incentivise employers to recruit apprentices to help people back into work and to help the economy to start moving again, and we've recently extended our incentives to support businesses in Wales to recruit apprentices up until February 2022. The apprenticeship employer incentive scheme is a key part of our COVID commitment to support businesses...
Rebecca Evans: Apprenticeships help people, especially young people, to improve their skills and careers, and help employers to meet their skills needs for the future. I discuss our ambitious programme for government commitments to support growth, widen participation in training and drive social mobility with the Minister for Economy at every opportunity.
Rebecca Evans: We have recognised the role of digital innovation in the future of local government services through the launch of the Centre for Digital Public Services, establishment of the local government chief digital officer and funding for digital projects. I will continue to support innovations in delivery to and engagement with our communities.
Rebecca Evans: We have followed the progress of other pilots and believe there is an opportunity to test a basic income pilot in Wales to demonstrate how this could alleviate poverty alongside wider benefits. Further exploration of the viability of a pilot is being considered as part of our 2022-23 budget preparations.
Rebecca Evans: The Welsh Government has introduced a framework under legislation for local government to follow. Each principal council is required to have a constitution that sets out how decisions are made and the procedures to be followed. Failure to comply with standing orders is an internal disciplinary matter.
Rebecca Evans: Social justice is at the heart of our 2022-23 budget preparations, including consideration of the provision of transport to children and young people in rural areas. Throughout our forthcoming 2022-23 budget, we will continue to invest in young people and children all over Wales, including in the climate change portfolio.
Rebecca Evans: And that's why Welsh Government has been fully and openly engaged with HM Treasury officials over the last two years, providing the UK Government with a number of documents addressing the criteria set out in the command paper, including the scenarios in which a tax is likely to apply and not apply, who would be the intended target of any tax, potential interactions with devolved and reserved...
Rebecca Evans: I'd like to thank all colleagues for what I think has been a really interesting debate, and I'll just begin by saying that I do fully recognise the importance of HM Treasury's role in the assessment and scrutiny of our request, in order to ensure that any proposal for new devolved taxes does not have unintended or unpalatable impacts on the cohesion of the UK tax system as a whole.
