6. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the UK Chancellor's budget statement? OAQ55212

I will be carefully reviewing the budget to assess the impact for Wales. But as always, it will be important to look below the headlines, as the devil is always in the detail, and I intended to publish a written statement later today.

I'm grateful to the Minister for her answer; I appreciate it was a very broad question. I don't know if the Minister has noticed that contained in the budget there is a commitment to a £30 million changing places fund. I'm sure that she would agree with me that the situation that so many of our disabled people face, where they can't be out of the house for more than a certain length of time because they can't access appropriate changing facilities, is something that none of us, I'm sure, across this Chamber would be content to see continue.

May I ask the Minister if she can make an assessment as soon as possible about whether or not we will get a consequential for this? I'm obviously probably one of the last people in this Chamber who would ever say to a Welsh Minister, 'Because they're going to spend this money in England on this, we ought to spend the consequential on exactly the same thing', but I have been very pleased to be supporting over some months the Llanelli changing places campaign in my own region, for example, and I'm sure she'd agree with me that it's absolutely unacceptable that a town of that size doesn't have a single changing places facility available for the disabled residents.

So, could I ask the Minister to find out as soon as it's feasible whether there will be a consequential and if she will consider having discussions with the appropriate Ministers—the Minister for planning, the Minister for social services—to see if it would be possible on this occasion, for this particular consequential, if we get one—and I really believe that we should—to be used? One of the disability charities has estimated that if we get the proper consequential for this we could provide 19 new changing places in Wales, which would obviously be of huge benefit to our disabled fellow citizens.

Well, the changing places fund wasn't one of the items that was mentioned in the Chancellor's speech itself, but I'm sure I'll find the detail set within the spreadsheets that accompany the announcement. So, I'll be taking the opportunity to explore in depth what has been offered through those spreadsheets and where those consequentials fall. So, at the moment, I don't have a full picture because it will take some time to get underneath the detail, but as soon as I do, I'll be able to make some further announcements. 

Question 7 [OAQ55200] has been withdrawn. So, finally, question 8, Mike Hedges.