Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:48 pm on 13 October 2021.
Yes, I do agree that the fiscal framework and the statement of funding policy, which sits alongside that, do need to be revisited, and particularly so in relation to fiscal flexibilities. I have the opportunity tomorrow, at a finance Ministers' quadrilateral, to make exactly that point, alongside Ministers from Northern Ireland and Scotland, who share our concern that we should be able to carry funding over for a 12-month period, for example, when we get late additional consequential funding announced in the year. We should have the ability to draw more down from the Wales reserve, and we should have the ability to have greater borrowing powers. And those are some examples of the additional flexibilities that would be useful purely for good budget management, if nothing else. So, those discussions will be ongoing with the new Chief Secretary to the Treasury tomorrow. When we previously discussed it with the previous Chief Secretary, it was agreed that this would be an ongoing discussion. So, I do hope that we're able to make some progress.