1. What impact will gender budgeting plans have on the Arfon constituency? OQ58276

Our approach to gender budgeting in Arfon and across Wales continues to evolve in line with our budget improvement plan and the programme for government. Three pilots are under way and, as well as evaluating their impact, we also continue to learn from international best practice.

Thank you very much. Gross domestic product is the most common measure of national income—a model, of course, that measures the size of the cake and how much we produce with our resources rather than the standard of living and equality. And gender budgeting would use tools such as policy evaluations and impact assessments in order for us to be aware of all the ways in which Government budgets and fiscal policy impact differently on women and men.

One example of using these tools would be the ability to assess funding decisions with regard to public services, which impact women more significantly than men, given that there are more women working in the public sector than there are men. And that is even more relevant to Arfon and Gwynedd—Gwynedd is third in Wales in terms of the proportion of employees working in the public sector. So, I have a great deal of interest in hearing how Government expenditure decisions and fiscal policy are being made through this specific lens and to what extent they are endorsed by organisations, such as the Wales Women's Budget Group.

Thank you very much to Siân Gwenllian for that question. I think she sets out why it is so important that we start to look at our budget through different lenses. GDP is an important source of data and we do have some experimental data looking at GDP on a Welsh-specific level. It's not usable yet, but, as Siân Gwenllian says, that is only one way of looking at things and we have to look at things more creatively to get that proper understanding of the impact of our budgeting decisions on various different groups in society and to take that intersectional look at our decisions as well. And this is one of the reasons why our budget improvement plan outlines our vision and it does include some short-term actions and those medium-term ambitions that we have over the next five years to improve the process of determining our budgets here in Wales through the lens of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. As part of this plan, we have three gender budgeting pilots under way at the moment, and all of them will be independently assessed and those findings then will enable us to take that learning through into our more regular budgeting process across the Government. 

The importance of engaging widely is well made as a point as well. So, we do continue to engage with the Wales Women's Budget Group and with other interested parties through the reformed budget improvement and impact advisory group, and that helps us again to develop our approach to gender budgeting. And I'm also really pleased that the Finance Committee in this Senedd is taking a strong interest in this. At the same time, we're looking internationally and working with the Wellbeing Economy Governments network to invigorate our connections with leaders in the world in this area, including in Iceland and Canada. So, there is a lot to learn, but I think our three pilots are going to help us greatly in terms of thinking differently about the way that we look at our budgets here in Wales.

Gender budgeting, as you know, promotes gender equity for women, men and gender-diverse groups. A survey by the Wales Tourism Alliance, UK Hospitality Cymru and the Professional Association of Self Caterers UK on the Welsh Government's proposals for self-catering accommodation and how it affects women and/or unpaid carers, to which 83 per cent of respondents were women, found that 71 per cent of respondents had caring responsibilities for school-age children, a disabled child or partner, or elderly parents; that 69 per cent fitted the self-catering accommodation around those responsibilities; and that 94 per cent were finding it difficult or challenging to run their self-catering accommodation business if an increase in the number of nights required to be available to rent, at 252, and the number of nights actually let to 182, came into force. In most cases, women are the driving force in these businesses. So, what consideration will the Welsh Government give to these businesswomen in Arfon, and across north Wales, when deciding on their proposal to raise the occupancy criteria for self-catering accommodation by 160 per cent before legitimate businesses are exempt from council tax premiums of up to 300 per cent from next April?

Well, I am aware that women, including those with caring responsibilities, and retirees in fact, are well represented amongst operators of self-catering properties. But it's not, however, clear that such operators would be less able than other people to let their properties for more of the year, given the fact that they're operating businesses. There is very little evidence available in this regard, and certainly none that can be validated by the Welsh Government, but I am aware of the concerns that the Member raises.