Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 1:54 pm on 5 February 2020.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 1:54, 5 February 2020

I think there is a case for earlier engagement earlier in the year, and I found the debate that the Finance Committee tabled after your listening session to be very instructive and very helpful. So, I think that's something that I would be keen to introduce on an annual basis, having the debate early on in the year. I think there's some discussion to be had with Finance Committee as to whether that should be Finance Committee-led after the committee's done its listening work, or whether it's something that the Finance Committee would prefer the Government to table, but I'm very happy to explore those issues with the committee. So, I think that early engagement is very important.

In terms of what might happen at the final budget, I'm still, really, considering what the options might be. One of the difficulties really is that just shortly after that, there'll be the UK budget, which could potentially change things again. An educated guess would be that there wouldn't be much change in terms of revenue but there might be additional capital, so I think that this is a time really for us and others to be considering what our priorities might be, should additional funding be forthcoming. But if I'm unable to make further allocations in the final budget, then I would certainly want to signal to colleagues where the priorities would be, should additional funding come forward.