Mark Drakeford: Well, those really are questions for the Cabinet Secretary with responsibility for the childcare policy area. I know that he’s working very actively with officials and partners beyond the Assembly, informing the pilot schemes, and I’m sure that he’ll make an announcement to Assembly Members as soon as he’s in a position to do so.
Mark Drakeford: I think there are two different ways in which it’s important to explore this issue in Wales. First of all, I am keen to set in motion work that will look at the whole way in which we raise local taxation in Wales and to see whether the system we currently have is the one that best reflects future needs. However, whatever methods you use for raising money, there will always be a need to find...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I have to be a bit careful not to anticipate the detail of the statement that will not be released until later this afternoon. What I think I can say at this point to the Member is that I do intend to use a floor mechanism for next year’s distribution to local authorities and that will be reflected in the settlement that I will lay before the Assembly later today.
Mark Drakeford: I’ll do that in exactly the way I explained a moment or two ago. We have a funding formula. It is an agreed formula. It is revised every year. It’s been revised again this year. It involves political voices and expert voices in it, and I take the advice of that expert group. We will use that formula as recommended to me and then we will distribute the quantum that we are able to make...
Mark Drakeford: Well, we will continue with that intention in the next financial year. I’ve spoken to all Cabinet members and they have all placed some grants into the RSG for next year. That is part of the pattern that we, as a Government, have drawn up over the past few years. I am eager to proceed in the same way for next year, where we can provide greater flexibility for local authorities to use the...
Mark Drakeford: Of course I agree that the formula should rely on the most up-to-date data possible. That’s why I was pleased to agree the recommendations in relation to population numbers and school pupil numbers. I think every effort is made, both by local authority partners and those who advise them, to make sure that the formula does depend on the most reliable data available. During my visits around...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Sian Gwenllian for her initial comments on funding for local authorities in the next financial year. Of course, I recognise the fact that there is £25 million in that budget following the agreement made between the Government and Plaid Cymru. O ran y fformiwla, rwyf wedi dilyn y confensiwn a ddilynwyd gan Weinidogion llywodraeth leol ers llawer iawn o flynyddoedd yn y Cynulliad hwn....
Mark Drakeford: Well, the £66 billion figure comes from a leaked document, as the Member agreed. Nevertheless, the Treasury produced a series of far more formal briefings in advance of the referendum on 23 June. All of those demonstrated the adverse effect that leaving the European Union would have on the United Kingdom’s economic prospects. I see that the Treasury has not disassociated itself from any of...
Mark Drakeford: The promotion of the Welsh offer remains a very important part of the work that the Government does as a whole, and it’s led by my colleague Ken Skates. I think it’s fair to point out to the leader of the Conservative Party that we’re yet to leave the European Union, and the impact of that on our economy remains very much still to be seen. What is absolutely clear, from those businesses...
Mark Drakeford: The Welsh Government will be represented at that JMC by the First Minister and I will accompany him to that meeting. We will go into those negotiations in exactly the same way as you would expect Ministers in Scotland and Northern Ireland to approach those discussions, making sure that the interests of Wales are firmly and inescapably drawn to the attention of the Prime Minister and other UK...
Mark Drakeford: Eluned Morgan draws attention to the long-term impact that leaving the European Union on the wrong terms would have for Wales. The budget I laid yesterday grapples with the immediate consequences of losing potentially European funds that otherwise would have come to Wales. But the long-term impact of lower growth in the UK economy, with everything that that would mean in terms of tax receipts...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Eluned Morgan for the question. The protection of our economic interests in the Brexit context is vital to Wales. Together with finance Ministers from Scotland and Northern Ireland, I will meet with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury next week ahead of the autumn statement. The impact of EU transition is at the very top of our agenda.
Mark Drakeford: I thank Julie Morgan for that question. I think Cardiff’s record in using capital spending on environmental purposes of this sort is admirable. The latest intention to use capital spending for street lighting in the city is part of a wider pattern in which they’ve used money, made available through the Welsh Government in part, for street lighting energy efficiency, council building...
Mark Drakeford: Certainly, I agree with Vikki Howells in her commendation of RCT council, and indeed councils across Wales for the way in which they have embraced the twenty-first century schools programme. Over 150 schools and colleges across Wales are seeing rebuilding and refurbishment of their premises. But the point that my colleague made in her supplementary towards the end is perhaps the more...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for her supplementary question. I think that when accounting adjustments are taken into account, capital expenditure on social services actually fell by 1.1 per cent last year, and that was in line with the estimates that local authorities had provided and takes no account of the £10 million additional capital provided through the intermediate care fund, which is largely...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for that question. After adjusting for the one-off capital expenditure associated with the buy-out of the housing revenue account subsidy system, capital expenditure by local authorities increased by 7.4 per cent in 2015-16.
Mark Drakeford: I met the leaders of every local authority in Wales over the summer. Building on those discussions, I recently set out an emerging way forward for local government reform. Over the autumn I will continue to engage local government and other stakeholders to develop that detail of the approach.
Mark Drakeford: I chaired the first meeting of the European advisory group on 28 September. A written statement including a summary note of this meeting has been provided to the Assembly.
Mark Drakeford: Plans to repeal aspects of the Trade Union Act 2016 were included in the First Minister’s legislative programme statement and a Bill to do so will be brought forward early in the New Year.
Mark Drakeford: The Welsh Revenue Authority is being established as a non-ministerial department that will be staffed by civil servants. The nature of its work will, of necessity, require a relatively specialist workforce in key aspects of the authority’s responsibilities, including tax administration, finance, legal, information and communications technology, and data analysis.
