6. 5. Statement from the Chair of the Finance Committee: Fiscal Reform — Lessons from Scotland

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:49 pm on 19 July 2017.

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Photo of Mr Simon Thomas Mr Simon Thomas Plaid Cymru 3:49, 19 July 2017

(Translated)

Thank you, Steffan Lewis. First of all, just on that final point, I agree entirely that we need more timely and more appropriate data for Wales, that is more robust, in order to make some of the decisions that we ask the Government to make and then, in turn, the Assembly to approve. I hope that the process that the Government has commissioned—that Bangor University will start on that. He will know, as a member of the Finance Committee, that we’re about to look at the draft budget ourselves and we’ll be inviting in a number of organisations and other people who take this overview of budgets, not just in Wales but also more broadly internationally as well. Perhaps we will learn some good practices from that. What’s important, I think, is that we are ready for the challenges facing us, particularly when income tax comes, and that we don’t sit on our hands and think, ‘Well, this information will come’. We have to be in the vanguard. We have to break new ground, and very difficult ground at times.

Could I just turn to the broader point that you were making about participatory budgeting? It’s right to remind the Assembly about the agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Labour party in terms of looking at that. It’s not my role to answer for the Cabinet Secretary this afternoon, but I know that he is looking at this issue and is looking for opportunities to learn about work that’s being done in this field, and I hope very greatly that we will hear how that is happening. But it’s important to say that the Finance Committee itself is part of the process, although we don’t want to cloud what the Government is doing and what the Finance Committee is doing; our role is to scrutinise the Government and it’s the role of the Government to do the budget.

We were in Beaumaris last week having a stakeholder session with the public, and we have also had, I remember, a very successful session in Bassaleg School near Newport where we did a participatory budget session. Very interestingly, after allocating all the Monopoly money in the classroom, very broadly the budget looked very similar to the budget that we have from the Welsh Government. That is, people do prioritise health, then they prioritise education, then they share the money out amongst other things. It was a very interesting exercise, and I would especially like the committee to do more of that with young people, particularly with the proposal that young people start voting at 16. There is a role for us there, and I’m sure that the Finance Committee would be pleased about a day out from the Assembly from time to time to be part of that process. [Interruption.] Nick Ramsay is very happy to do that.

I wasn’t aware of the work that he referred to at Glasgow Caledonian University. I wasn’t aware of that, so thank you for that, and I’ll make sure that we do draw the attention of the Finance Committee team to that and that we look at that as something that can enrich our work in this area.