Shadow Finance Minister and North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has today challenged the First Minister over the £1.3 billion the Welsh Government has failed to allocate in its Budget and called for additional transparency regarding future budgets.
Speaking in the virtual Welsh Parliament today, Mr Isherwood called on the First Minister, Mark Drakeford MS, to explain why.
He said:
“The Welsh Government Reserve can hold up to £350m. On April 1 2020, the balance of the Wales reserve was £335.9m.
“Three weeks ago, the Welsh Government and UK Government agreed additional flexibility in the Wales Reserve going from 2020-21 into 2021-22, enabling the Welsh Government to carry over any unallocated element of the extra £650 million then provided by the UK Government into the 2021-22 financial year, on top of the existing provision to transfer funding between years.
“This financial year, the Welsh Government is carrying forward around £660.2m of extra 2020-21 funding to 2021-22.
“The Finance Committee has recommended that the Welsh Government publish an Outturn report for 2020-21, with a similar level of detail to that for 2019-20.
“How does the Welsh Government respond to this, and how will you ensure additional transparency regarding Welsh Government budgets, where, for example, the Welsh Government has failed to allocate any of the extra UK Government funding, unlike Scotland, meaning that you have failed to allocate £1.3 Billion in the Budget your Government is announcing today?”
In his response, the First Minister said that the Welsh Government have “reported faithfully and regularly on every spending decision that we have made to the Senedd.”