9. Debate: The Second Supplementary Budget 2020-21

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:47 pm on 17 November 2020.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 6:47, 17 November 2020

Okay. So, as I was saying, of course, this supplementary budget looks back at the spending that has been undertaken. And I'm very keen to bring forward that third supplementary budget, to which some colleagues have referred, in order to be very clear about the additional spending that will take place throughout the rest of the financial year. However, we have a really important opportunity next week, when we have the spending review reporting on 25 November, to have those discussions about thinking forward for the budget for the future year as well, and certainly some of the contributions were very much along the lines of spend that we would like to see, and colleagues would like to see, happen in the next financial year. 

There were a number of comments and questions regarding our unallocated resources. The figures published in our extraordinary supplementary budget stand at levels before the announcement of the £320 million reconstruction package and the actions that we're taking for the firebreak. And I think this really does reflect the significant pace and scale of the changes that we're facing in responding to the pandemic and, alongside the decisions that we need to take in response to that on a very frequent and fast-paced basis, I'll be providing formal details on those in our third supplementary budget.

But responding to the point on provision of any further funding from reserves for other items of spend, for example, we've made some provision, should a further firebreak be needed, to be able to support businesses to a similar level. And of the £1.6 billion that has been unallocated, £924 million is held in the reserve that is created for the pandemic response, and, of that, we've already allocated £240 million, including funding for the firebreak, and the remaining balance is set aside for future costs associated with the pandemic. We have a further £280 million set aside for other revenue costs outside of the current plans, and our capital reserves within that £1.6 billion total £250 million, but, of course, we have already committed that balance to the pandemic recovery projects in the remainder of the year, and you will remember that I issued a statement on this fairly recently, and my colleague the Minister with responsibility for European transition has also made some comments on this in terms of the work he was doing on the reconstruction effort across Government.