Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:43 pm on 29 June 2016.
It’s absolutely true to say that Scotland has already been around this track in agreeing a fiscal framework to surround the devolution of tax powers to the Scottish Parliament. In many ways, we are fortunate to be following them around that track, both because the Scottish Government has been generous in sharing their experience with us and providing us with some insights into their discussions with the Treasury. It’ll be no surprise to Members here who followed that story in the press that those discussions were not always plain sailing and had their acrimonious moments. The acrimony revolved around the key ‘no detriment’ principle. It is absolutely essential to us here in Wales that when there are adjustments to the block grant to take account of taxes that we will now raise in Wales, that those adjustments reflect decisions that are in the hands of the National Assembly, for which we must all be willing to take responsibility, and must not be based on decisions over which we have no influence at all. The population dimension, which Nick Ramsay referred to, was at the heart of some of those discussions. The Scottish Government successfully argued that the block grant adjustment should not penalise Scotland for changes in their population, which were more influenced by Westminster decisions than by decisions taken in Edinburgh. I will certainly expect that any deal for Wales would reflect exactly that ‘no detriment’ approach.