6. What was the major change in the 2018-19 budget round that was determined by the priorities set out in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015? OAQ51613

8. How did the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 influence the Cabinet Secretary's budget allocations? OAQ51612

I thank the Member for the question. Presiding Officer, I understand that you've given your permission for questions 6 and 8 to be grouped together.

Amongst the changes brought about in the 2018-19 budget, the additional investment of £30 million for homelessness over two years, including £10 million specifically for youth homelessness in 2019-20, demonstrates the impact of the Act, and the five ways of working that it sets out, including involvement and prevention in our budget planning.

Cabinet Secretary, I wonder if you realise that there's widespread feeling, I think, on all sides of the Assembly, that we should be more demanding of how this information is presented and therefore scrutinised and connected to the well-being goals. You'll be aware of what the future generations commissioner said to the Finance Committee—and I quote:

'Instead of feeling that the WFG Act had made an impact on the draft Budget, it was closer to resembling last years’, but with a few extra words around it.'

We must be much more dynamic, mustn't we, in how we use this Act, and mark where it has affected decisions and there have been moves into the budget or increasing the budget and items that have moved out of the budget. That's really what this Act demands.

I certainly share the Member's ambition and have taken advice from the Finance Committee on ways in which we can do more to demonstrate the impact of the Act on our budget making. That is why, in this budget round, in those bilateral discussions that I mentioned a few moments ago to Angela Burns, I ensured that there was a member of staff with responsibility for the Act always in the meeting, so that there was somebody there with the specific brief to ask those questions and to challenge Ministers where necessary as to how their proposals could be seen to bear the imprint of the Act. It's why we agreed with the commissioner three particular areas that we will pursue during this budget round to allow her to be able to see where the Act was making a difference, or where she felt that there was more that we can do. Llywydd, I've always got to say that the Act, inevitably, is something that will be evolutionary in the way that we are able to embed its principles in our budget planning. I accept that there is more that we can do and I look forward to playing what part I can in making that happen.

I also accept that it's work in progress, but I think we need to be more ambitious, really, for the future, and in doing that, send a signal to the whole public sector that this could be the breakthrough opportunity to at last see joint working and pooled budgets in operation. I've been a Member of the Assembly since 1999 and it's been a constant call that we need to multiply our effort by having this common approach to public expenditure, and this silo mentality is very, very damaging. The Act could be used by the local service boards, for instance, as a very dynamic tool to ensure this type of effective spending of the Welsh pound.

I accept what the Member says—that there is a leadership role for the Welsh Government in showing that the way in which we are deploying the Act can be an example for the ways that others can take those lessons as well. I'm sure the Member will find a bit of time to look at one or two of the well-being assessments that the public service boards have produced and the practical plans that they are now deriving from those assessments. As ever, they demonstrate a span of quality across a range of different aspects of those assessments, but the good ones, I think, are already showing the way in which the goals and the five ways of working are impacting on decisions by local players, and in particular, in the way that David Melding suggested, are enabling them to combine resources, to pool efforts and to make a difference in the way that the Act would suggest.

I think it is still true to say that the well-being of future generations Act is like a shadow in terms of the influence it’s had on the budget to date. Now, I know that the Cabinet Secretary is very willing in answering questions such as this—and I don’t want to tempt him, because I do know that he has a list of projects that meet each of the goals of the Act. I don’t want to tempt him into that. But I want to ask him specifically, as the commission for future generations had been involved in aspects of this year’s budget, working specifically on one issue, which is decarbonisation, and also as there’s an intention to introduce carbon budgeting under another piece of legislation, the Environment (Wales) Act 2016, how would we expect next year’s budget to reflect the determination involved in that work?

Well, that’s perfectly true, what Simon Thomas has just said: I have a list here that I can use to demonstrate the impact the Act has had to date. But on the subject that he has raised, I have met, over the past fortnight, with Lesley Griffiths to begin the process of planning how, over the ensuing year, we will be able to bring the process of creating the budget together with the process of carbon budgeting, as we call it. And so, that work or that process has begun, and the civil servants are working on the detail. I have a meeting with the commissioner next week to discuss the same subject. Yes, we are eager, as a Government, and I know that Lesley Griffiths is eager, to do more to unify the two processes, assimilate them, and to have an opportunity to report back to Assembly Members on how we can bring the two elements together and have greater impact by so doing.