Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:49 pm on 28 September 2022.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 1:49, 28 September 2022

So, on the issue of non-domestic rates, I'm pleased that the consultation that we recently published has been warmly welcomed, and I'm looking forward to reading the responses to that consultation. In regard to what we might be planning now for our budget, which we will be publishing in the middle of December, of course you'll have heard the statement from the Chancellor on Monday that there's no intention now to bring forward a budget until the spring. So, we are working on the basis that our budget will be fixed, basically, from that which we agreed in our three-year spending plans last year. So, we're not looking to situations where we will have additional funding to allocate, and it's on that basis that I do ask colleagues, and others from outside the Senedd, that, when they are asking for additional funding for areas, particularly those that would cost hundreds of millions of pounds, such as that that you've just described, we do need to identify where in our existing plans we would move that money from. Because I just want to be really clear that our plans at the moment are based on our budget being fixed and there not being additional funding forthcoming for announcement in our draft budget. So, I think that is an important context for all of us. The only main move that we see at the moment would be repayment of the national insurance contributions funding, which, obviously, employers now will not be needing to pay, so that was included in the spending review, and that will need, I think, to go back to Westminster.