8. What discussions has the Welsh Government had with the UK Government regarding devolving powers on income tax bands to Wales? OQ59182

Thank you for your question. No discussions have been held with UK Government on devolving income tax bands to Wales.

Thank you for that succinct response. The Government here has refused to accept the need to increase taxes in Wales, which will certainly lead to seeing our public services being squeezed and creaking, and some services disappearing. Of course, politics is about making difficult decisions. That is a decision that you as a Government have taken, and each and every one of us will have to live with that decision. Now, I understand that the Government doesn't want to see those people on the lowest incomes paying more—nobody would want to see that, naturally. One way of avoiding that is to have the powers to adapt income tax bands to protect those on low incomes but enable a gradual increase for others. This would bring Wales into line with Scotland. Can we therefore expect to see the Westminster Government under the Labour Party devolving these powers to Wales? Or, in taking your response to the previous question, when you said that you couldn't anticipate what a future Labour Government might do, would you and your fellow Members here be pushing for such a change? Thank you.

Well, what I can say certainly is that the issue of income tax powers is an extremely complex area; it's complex in the context of the tax threshold base that we have within Wales. There is a distinction between the issue of increasing the rates of taxation and the issue of the banding of taxation, and that is certainly an area that would be far more beneficial, probably, to Wales than it would be in respect of individual rates. The one thing we don't want to see is taxation that would effectively impose a further burden on a society where we have so many people who are in the low-paid category who would be bearing a significant part of the burden of that taxation. So, any decision to seek more powers in the future would be considered as part of our broader long-term strategic tax policy priorities, rather than in response to the specific and immediate financial challenges. And I think that any argument to seek further powers cannot be divorced from the need to address the overall current inadequacies of the devolution arrangements that we have at the moment.