5. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:50 pm on 11 December 2018.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:50, 11 December 2018

On that one, I think the Cabinet Secretary answered that quite comprehensively in his questions last week. I'm sure that when the new Government has settled, whoever the new Minister with responsibility for business rate relief is will want to outline it. We're putting it into our final budget. On the assumption the final budget passes, I'm sure the new Minister will want to outline their plans to take that forward, but the Cabinet Secretary did answer a set of quite comprehensive questions on this only last week.

In terms of the HE issue, I know that Rhun ap Iorwerth already knows that all HE institutions are autonomous institutions and responsibility for staffing matters rests entirely with the university's governing body. The Cabinet Secretary for Education allocated the sector an additional £10 million to mitigate the impact of keeping tuition fees at £9,000, and that has been included in the budget. We know that there are significant increases in student numbers as a result of our new scheme, but it is not a matter for the Government to interfere in the individual staffing decisions of universities. They are autonomous bodies, non-profit institutions serving households, and it's entirely a matter for them.