7. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on Welsh Government preparation for the use of its forthcoming powers of taxation? OAQ51416

I thank John Griffiths for that. Work continues to ensure that the Welsh Revenue Authority is well prepared for the responsibilities it will discharge from 1 April next year. Partial devolution of income tax from April 2019 will also require new services from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. 

Cabinet Secretary, the book The Spirit Level and much other evidence show that we all have much to gain from a more equal society in every way. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation this week stated that 400,000 more children and 300,000 more pensioners are living in poverty in the UK now than in 2012-13. The Social Mobility Commission have resigned en masse in protest, in part at least, at the gap between the rhetoric and the actual action and practice of the UK Government. While we wait for a UK Labour Government to create a more equal United Kingdom, are you able to tell us today what steps Welsh Government will take, when it has its new fiscal powers, to introduce a more progressive element to taxation in Wales and a more equal country?

Well, I thank John Griffiths for that. The Rowntree figures, Llywydd, are authentically shocking in showing that the burden of austerity in our country is being carried by those least able to bear it, including—and I think it is genuinely shocking—the number of children in Wales and the United Kingdom who will find themselves living in poverty in the future as a direct result of those policies. That conclusion is not just the conclusion of the Rowntree foundation, it's borne out by Resolution Foundation, by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and by others in the way that John Griffiths said. 

More equal societies bring with them a huge number of advantages. They enjoy better health, they have less crime, they have less fear of crime and maybe most importantly of all—and this is why the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank both, these days, publish documents calling for more equal societies—they do better economically as well. That's why the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 has the creation of a more equal Wales at its heart. We took a very modest step on that road this year with the way in which we are using our land transaction tax possibilities. Both can make getting on the property ladder easier in Wales for people on modest incomes and to support businesses at the small and medium-sized end of the spectrum. It was a small but symbolically important step and I'm very glad that we were able to take it. 

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary.