Rebecca Evans: Diolch. I'd like to thank all Members today for their thoughtful contributions. This first supplementary budget is an important part of the budget process, allowing changes to be reported to and scrutinised by the Senedd, and I do welcome the constructive debate that we've had this afternoon. As I outlined in my opening remarks, although we've regularised a number of previously announced...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch, Llywydd. This first supplementary budget of 2021-22 once more focuses squarely on the Welsh Government's response to the pandemic. It regularises the important allocations that the previous Welsh Government made to help us and our partners respond quickly and effectively to the impact of coronavirus. It also provides an opportunity to make technical changes that restate the budgets of...
Rebecca Evans: Well, of course, universal basic income is about alleviating poverty, and that is absolutely the interest of the Welsh Government. It's also about giving people more control over their lives and having a positive impact on their mental health and their well-being—all things that we would want to achieve here in Wales. We've followed pilots across the world very closely and with interest,...
Rebecca Evans: The Welsh Government only invests in line with the priorities voted upon by the people of Wales. This has included the need to invest to address historic and consistent underinvestment by the UK Government in critical areas such as broadband and rail infrastructure.
Rebecca Evans: Well, this funding formula is developed in consultation with local government to ensure that there is fair treatment of different factors, and, of course, the independent members of the distribution sub-group are there to ensure that there is no bias in favour of or against the interests of any particular authority, and they also, of course, identify technical issues. But it is the case that...
Rebecca Evans: Yes. The funding formula is developed and maintained jointly with local government. If local government, through the collective voice of the Welsh Local Government Association, has proposals for different approaches or wants a formal review of the formula, then it is open for it to propose this.
Rebecca Evans: Welsh Government has provided, over recent years, significant funding for councils for Safe Routes to School, Safe Routes in Communities, and also our active travel funding. At the start of the previous Senedd, we were only investing around £16 million a year in active travel, but, as I said, investment now has increased to around £55 million, showing the constant and increased priority...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you for raising that issue, and I'm really pleased to say that we do have a debate on buses, of course, later on this afternoon, where some of these issues can be explored in more depth with the Minister with responsibility for transport. But decarbonisation of transport is critical, and, as I've described, some of the investment that we are making is specifically in zero-emission...
Rebecca Evans: Tackling climate change is at the heart of this Government’s policy making. For example, this year we have provided £275 million of capital funding to support the continued delivery of our metro networks, increased investment in active travel to around £55 million, and allocated £38 million to support the roll-out of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, zero-emission buses, taxis...
Rebecca Evans: I have to say to Mark Isherwood it's more than a claim—it's a fact. Welsh Government has provided the most generous package of business support, and businesses in north Wales have received over £475 million of support through the economic resilience fund since that was put in place in April 2020. And the support that we've given to the tourism industry in Wales is the most generous in the...
Rebecca Evans: Our package of business support is the most generous available anywhere in the UK, and we have provided more in business support than we've received from the UK Government in respect of support in England. I have earmarked up to £200 million of additional business support in 2021-22 to respond to the evolving changes of the pandemic.
Rebecca Evans: Thank you for raising that important issue. We've been really conscious of lost income for local authorities in particular and, as a result, Welsh Government has provided £190.5 million to support local government in terms of lost income. And that includes lost income from adult social services for which they would normally make a charge, other services such as planning where they might look...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you for raising this issue. We do have a civil contingencies unit within the Welsh Government, and work is under way to examine the preparations and planning of all parts of Welsh Government in terms of what we need to do alongside partners for future pandemics, learning from our experiences during this one. Of course, funding forms part of those considerations, but it is dependent on...
Rebecca Evans: I'd like to echo Buffy Williams's admiration and thanks for local government workers who, as she said, have gone absolutely above and beyond through the course of the pandemic, and keep doing so as we try and move through this current period as well. It is absolutely the case that communities such as the one Buffy represents have played an incredibly important part in our history, and...
Rebecca Evans: My ministerial colleagues and I have had regular discussions with local government leaders on the effect of the pandemic, including the financial impacts. Welsh Government officials have worked with local government finance directors to understand the sector’s needs, and we've responded with significant support, with funding of more than £1 billion.
Rebecca Evans: So, in terms of the Scottish council elections, I'm not aware of any problems that we've had in 2017 or 2012, but it is absolutely the case that 2007 was a very difficult year for those particular elections, which did combine the elections for the Scottish Parliament and local government on the same day. But I think the consensus is that those problems arose mainly because they were combined...
Rebecca Evans: I think there is perhaps a tendency to overstate the complexities and the likelihood of voter confusion, because as you say, voters are already able to cope with a variety of voting systems, and as you've described, voters have different approaches in Senedd, UK parliamentary, and police and crime commissioner elections. So, the counting system under STV might be complicated, but the voting...
Rebecca Evans: So, of course the 2021 Act is following the same principle as the Wales 2017 Act did when it gave the Senedd the right to choose its voting system, so it is following that established process which would be applied to us here. But I did have an excellent meeting with the Electoral Reform Society earlier on this week, and they told me about work that they'd done with councillors to understand...
Rebecca Evans: The 2021 Act allows principal councils to choose either first-past-the-post or STV. A key principle throughout the 2021 Act is for decisions to be made locally. The Welsh Government should not interfere in that local choice by seeking to ensure councils have got one or other system.
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for that question. I share your concern and the concerns that you've described about one-year settlements and what that means for the difficulty in planning and having sustainable approaches to services. So, I'm really pleased to be able to say that we do expect, finally, the long-awaited comprehensive spending review later this year. We would expect it to be a three-year...
