6. Statement by the Chair of the Finance Committee: Report on the Remuneration Board's Determination Underspend

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:04 pm on 20 June 2018.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Simon Thomas Mr Simon Thomas Plaid Cymru 4:04, 20 June 2018

I thank Mike Hedges for his comments, which have the value of being consistent. He's consistently said this, and they've been consistently clear and transparent as well, so I thank him for that. I don't disagree with him, and he reflects the points that I was making earlier that in our own spending and our own budget setting we have to act like the rest of the public sector in Wales. We're not entitled to treat ourselves differently—I very much think that that has been taken on board.

He asked a specific question around an earlier recommendation by the Finance Committee that the Commission's spending should be in line with the Welsh block grant for the rest of this Assembly term. That remains the recommendation, of course, of the Finance Committee, but I think it is important to put on record that there have been changes in the way money is now allocated. The remuneration board changes mean that the money that was set aside for Members is now more flexible in Members' hands. Members will be aware that they can vire, I think, up to 25 per cent of that money for their purposes now, and I think what we will need to do when we scrutinise the draft—well, it won't be the draft budget. When we scrutinise the actual budget of the Commission in the autumn, we will be, I hope, as a Finance Committee, looking to take into account—I think it's appropriate that we take into account the fact that there will not be such a large underspend that will be flexible to be used. So, I think it's appropriate to take that out, if you like, of how we look at the budget, because that wouldn't be fair, because that's a decision by another body in other circumstances. So, we take that one out and then we look at the overall budget, and I would agree then with Mike Hedges that, having taken out the remuneration part, because that's no longer part of this equation, we would be surely looking to see that the recommendation of the general block grant rise is there, and if it isn't because of a specific reason, then we'll be looking for the investment decision behind that reason, the project that's concerned, where it might be in terms of—it might, for example, be in a spend-to-save-type approach. All these things, I think, we have to be open to, but our basic principle there is that, having taken out this change now with the remuneration board, the recommendation of the Finance Committee does still stand.