Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:33 pm on 17 November 2020.
Thank you, Gweinidog, for your statement. The second supplementary budget allocates over £1.5 billion and sets out £1 billion of unallocated funding, as we saw on the Finance Committee. We do, of course, welcome—I know you've recognised—additional funding from the UK Government. Given your comments in Plenary on 6 October, that there did remain uncertainty over that level of funding, I wonder if you can confirm to us, Minister, whether there's greater clarity on that funding now, particularly in relation to the guarantee and particularly in relation to additional allocations for the pandemic.
We welcome recommendation 3 of the report, which asks for a breakdown of the £1.3 billion provided to NHS organisations for COVID-19 and a breakdown of the stabilisation package that you mentioned. You've previously said, or perhaps it's the health Minister who said, that the write-off of the NHS health boards' debt was dependent on them breaking even this year. I think I'm right in saying that. So, I wonder if you could confirm that we are on course for, at least this year, breaking even.
Can I ask you about the guarantee of funding for Wales? You said previously that it lacked transparency, but you were expecting some more details from the UK Government and the Treasury. Have you had any of those details yet? I'm pleased that the Treasury is now trying to help provide you with a bit more certainty. That was certainly welcomed and recognised as important by the Finance Committee, and I did like, to quote your phrase, that,
'the guarantee is a better problem than the one we had previously' which is a good way of putting it. I know that the guarantee does answer many questions, but, of course, it raises questions as well.
Turning to the biggest slice of the budget—health—the first supplementary budget increased allocations by £481.2 million compared to the final budget. I understand that this budget increases allocations by £901.5 million. I'd be grateful if you could confirm this. You're working with the health service, you say, to better understand the requirements for personal protective equipment. This is, obviously, with the pandemic, a very important aspect of the health budget at the moment. Do you have any specific figures? I know you're liaising with health boards, but do you have any specific figures about the allocations which are being provided for PPE at this time?
In terms of local government, on 17 August, the Minister announced additional funding of £264 million. There's now a further £306.6 million for the local authority hardship fund. How are you ensuring that this is fairly distributed and will be well spent by local authorities? I think that's an important thing for us to see.
And just finally, Presiding Officer, moving on to the issue raised previously about funding flexibility, and in response to the £1.2 billion UK Government guarantee. I appreciate the Treasury has not provided some of the budget flexibilities that you required, but you have received considerable amounts of funding, and I know that your requirement now to want to veer over capital and revenue funding isn't so necessary because of that additional support that has been received from the UK Government. You also have a range of fiscal tools at your disposal, more than ever before in Wales. Key to that is tax-raising powers. This does give you a certain amount of flexibility. So, do you recognise that, with powers does come accountability and responsibility, and flexibility isn't just something that needs to be provided at the other end of the M4 by the Treasury—it's also something that should be at the heart of the Welsh Government's budget-setting process? We are living in new times, with the pandemic and with greater powers. Let's look more at the flexibility that we have here in Wales to deal with some of the issues that we're faced with here. Diolch.