Diolch, and thank you to colleagues for their contributions in the debate this afternoon. I'll begin by just responding to some of the comments made by the Chair of the Finance Committee in his remarks, which opened the debate this afternoon. One was, really, around how the Welsh Government engages with the committee in terms of providing information and so on, and I'm very happy to continue those discussions, which we're about to start, I think, in terms of how we can potentially improve the budget business protocol in future years. And I'm sure that we'll be bearing in mind the comments that colleagues have been making in the Chamber this afternoon. And I know that the Finance Committee has also found the technical briefings with the chief economist, for example, very helpful, and again I'm happy to continue with those, and also with an early evidence-giving session to the committee in those years when we do find ourselves—or circumstances when we find ourselves—in situations where the UK Government's autumn budget comes at a time that makes scrutiny more difficult than it should be in this Senedd. So, working together, I think, to improve these things I think will be very helpful in future.

The only recommendation that I wasn't able to agree to that the Finance Committee made was around the amount of information provided, asking that it should have been comparable with that set out in the spending review of 2021. And the reason that I couldn't accept that sole recommendation was because this budget is a single-year budget and it should be read alongside the three-year spending review budget documentation, which we published last year. Some of those things won't have changed. For example, the distributional analysis, which we undertook last year, wouldn't have really changed in any meaningful way this year. And in any case, the only data that we could have done that piece of work on was the last year's data, which is the most up to date set. So, there were good reasons in terms of not being able to accept the committee's recommendation there, but all of the others were accepted in full or in principle. 

Deputy Presiding Officer, there have been epic amounts of brass neck on the Conservative benches on display this afternoon. I think that colleagues on those benches have just completely ignored or forgotten the fact that our Welsh Government budget next year, or in the next financial year, will be worth over £1 billion less than we understood it would be at the time of the spending review. So, we shouldn't give any credence to the Conservatives who are up in arms when you see real-terms decreases to various budgets. [Interruption.] And I think I will come on to the point the Member will raise shortly, and, if I don't, I'll take an intervention after that.

We haven't discussed capital much in the Chamber this afternoon. The reason for that is that we didn't have a single extra penny of capital in the spending review last autumn, and that means our budget next year will be 8.1 per cent less in terms of capital. And that is, of course, the money that we need to be investing as we continue our journey out of the pandemic and the kind of money that we need to be creating good jobs and green investment here in Wales. 

But what I have done in the budget is listen very carefully to my colleagues on the Labour benches, and we've heard some of these really strong arguments this afternoon—from Jenny Rathbone, Mike Hedges, Rhianon Passmore, Vikki Howells and Alun Davies—about why we should be continuing to focus our efforts on the most vulnerable people and on protecting businesses in Wales and our public services, and that's why you'll see an extra £227 million for local government. And that, of course, includes funding for schools and social care. And the Conservatives are entirely disingenuous when they suggest that funding has been cut for schools. We've passed on every penny of the £117 million additional consequential funding we had in respect of education to local government and, on top of that, added funding to the education department in Wales. And if the Conservative education spokesperson speaks to local government leaders, as I do, they will be keen to tell her that they are investing more in education than they received in respect of that £117 million consequential funding.