This third supplementary budget is a really important part of the budget process. Approval of this supplementary budget will authorise the revised spending plans of the Welsh Government. It sets the limits against which our financial outturn position will be compared. It also authorises the cash that can be drawn from the Welsh consolidated fund to support that spending. I do thank Members for their contributions to this debate today. I will respond to a number of the points that have been raised.

There was a question seeking an update on the position in terms of the discussions that we have had with the UK Government on ports and borders. I can let colleagues know that I have now received a response to my representations to HM Treasury in regard to the funding for the infrastructure and the ongoing operations needed at the Welsh border, following our exit from the European Union. The Treasury has agreed, in principle, to fund additional costs associated with the inland sites in 2021-22 via a reserve claim. The Treasury has recognised our concerns about the substantive operational costs for these facilities and has confirmed that this will be addressed in the upcoming spending review. The UK Government should meet the additional operational costs of this significant and entirely new function directly resulting from EU exit, and which forms an important part of the Great Britain-wide biosecurity infrastructure, which will underpin an important element of the future trade deal. So, those additional operating costs will be important as well.

I was very interested to hear Mark Isherwood's analysis of the carry over of funding into next year. I just think it's beyond that the UK Government saw fit to provide such a significant additional amount of funding—£660 million—with six weeks to go to the end of the financial year. So, I was pleased that we were able to negotiate that carryover. But if Mark Isherwood or members of the public in Wales are wondering how we are in a position to carry over such a large amount of additional funding into next year for investment in our response to the COVID pandemic as we move forward, I can tell you that it is because we have managed Welsh public money properly here in Wales. We've driven value for money at every point in our process. We have been very careful with the investments that we've made and the decisions that we've made, and you can see that represented no more clearly than with the decisions that we took around contact tracing. Our system here in Wales is delivered as a public service, it's delivered through local authorities and our health boards, ensuring that there's value for money and that we've looked after Welsh people's money. Whereas across the border, of course, the system is much more poorly performing than our excellent system here in Wales, and has been outsourced to the private sector where huge profits are being made, and people are not getting the service that they're getting here in Wales.

And, of course, the kind of decisions that we were able to take on personal protective equipment here in Wales have also been looking at driving value for money for taxpayers. So, that is why we're able to carry forward funding into the next financial year, and I don't think any of us should forget that. And for me, this will be one of the big stories of the pandemic, when people look back on this period in the years ahead and compare the different approaches and responses of different Governments to the pandemic and the different priorities that have driven the decisions that we have made.

I will say, in terms of the period moving forward, I know that we do have our debate on the final budget later on, but there's been no meaningful engagement with the UK Government whatsoever on the 2021-22 budget, an absolutely appalling lack of engagement on the levelling-up fund and the shared prosperity fund, but I'm sure we'll have opportunities to discuss those things in more detail in due course this afternoon.

So, this has been a year of uncertainty, and one in which we have seen unprecedented changes to our fiscal position. I committed to ensuring that those changes would be transparent and fully scrutinised by the Senedd, which began with the first publication of our first supplementary budget last May—very early on in the crisis—an interim second supplementary budget in October, and culminating with this third supplementary budget today.

So, in total, over £6 billion has been added to our spending plans in year, which has been essential to deal with the immediate response to the coronavirus pandemic, and to start addressing the long-term impacts of the pandemic on services, on businesses and individuals, and this funding has been allocated throughout the year to deliver the most effective outcomes in Wales, and using the flexibilities that have been at our disposal. And I think, as all colleagues who have spoken in this debate have recognised this afternoon, it has been an absolutely exceptional year. I do want to put on record, Llywydd, my thanks to officials who have worked so carefully and diligently to support me in ensuring that we manage our position in year and bring through the supplementary budget in such good shape, and I'm very grateful to them. Diolch yn fawr. I move the motion.