The Allocation of Funding

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 1:32 pm on 25 November 2020.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 1:32, 25 November 2020

I was very pleased to be able to negotiate that guarantee with the UK Government in respect of additional funding for COVID-19. But what we have yet to receive from the UK Government is that reconciliation exercise, which will help us understand exactly what that guarantee relates to. Because, let's remember, all of this funding is just in relation to spend on tackling COVID-19 across the border in England—this isn't any special treatment or any special favours for Wales. But I have to say that, just last week, we voted and passed our second supplementary budget, to give maximum transparency to the decisions and the allocations that we're making in Wales. And Wales is the only part of the UK that has published a second supplementary budget thus far, to demonstrate the funding that is being provided to individuals, to businesses, and to communities, the NHS and local government as well.

In the second supplementary budget, that increased the overall Welsh resources by £2.5 billion. There is further funding to be allocated, but of course we are only two thirds of the way through the financial year. We have the prospect of a 'no deal' Brexit hanging on the horizon, and we don't yet know the full path of the pandemic through to the spring. So, there will be further allocations to be made, but they will be timely and in response to the specific conditions in which we find ourselves.