The Welsh Government has been criticised for “falling short of its rhetoric” and lacking “candour” on what its proposed budget means for people in Wales.
In December 2022 the Welsh Government’s finance minister Rebecca Evans announced the draft budget for Wales for the financial year starting on April 1 2023. This was described at the time as “unlike any since the start of devolution” given the way that spiralling inflation had eroded real terms value of department budgets, energy prices had increased costs across the board and the need for social protections to shield the worst off from the cost of living crisis.
However, despite the mitigating circumstances, the Welsh Parliament’s Finance Committee has gone through the budget and, in a report, has accused the Welsh Government of not being upfront with the Welsh public about their decision making or where in society the tough decisions and prioritisations will hit.
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Writing in the report the chair of the committee, Plaid MS Peredur Owen Griffiths, said that though it was “difficult to argue against the Welsh Government’s claim that this is one of the toughest budgets it has ever produced” this didn’t mean the Welsh Government “off the hook, nor does it mean that the proposals within this Draft Budget cannot be improved”.
He added: “This report points to areas where the Welsh Government is falling short of its rhetoric and where tangible improvements can be made. As a Committee, our efforts have focused on three main areas: a lack of clarity and candour on the decisions being made by the Welsh Government; the need to enhance the cost of living support for those who need it most; and the additional steps required to protect public services.”
A recurring theme in the report is that the Welsh Government has failed to be upfront about “exactly where the spending axe will fall”.
The Welsh NHS and healthcare
One member of the government singled out by the report is Wales health minister Eluned Morgan. The report pointed to the fact she had arranged for the Welsh NHS organisations to focus on six priority areas to deal with pressures saying: “Whilst these priorities are laudable, there is a danger they become meaningless if the Welsh Government cannot also explain which areas the NHS should deprioritise in order to focus resources elsewhere” adding that one witness had told the committee that “when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority”. You can read WalesOnline’s special investigation into NHS waiting lists here.
The committee also pointed to an apparent disconnect between allocation made in the draft budget and how this cash will alleviate NHS pressure.
The committee also said it was “deeply concerned” by the Nuffield Trust’s findings that “the NHS in Wales is less efficient or less focused on delivering timely care and that the average stay in hospitals is substantially longer in Wales than in England” adding that they believe “that the Welsh Government can and should do more to analyse the effectiveness of spend in this area to incentivise improvements that will reduce pressures in the long-term.”
Where does the axe fall?
The report also draws attention to comments made by education minister Rebecca Evans that this budget is “one of the toughest we have ever made” and that funding would have to be reprioritised from within existing plans to “refocus it into areas where it can have the greatest impact” with “difficult choices” during the budget process.
The committee accused the Welsh Government of not being clear where these cuts would fall saying: “We believe the Welsh Government should be more candid in the way it presents its decisions in the draft budget.”
It wasn’t just this committee that looked at the budget. Both the Economy, Trade and Rural Affairs Committee and the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee were also concerned with the lack of transparency from the Welsh Government.
An Economy Committee’s report noted that despite the Welsh Government stating there was less money on the table, there was a failure to set out the reduced number of businesses that they would be able to support.
The Climate Change Committee experienced delays receiving information from the Welsh Government which negatively affected their ability to scrutinise the Draft Budget. For several years, the Committee and its predecessor has expressed concerns about Natural Resources Wales’s (NRW) ability to effectively carry out its responsibilities due to a lack of funding and capacity.
The Welsh Government has acknowledged that there is a gap in NRW’s funding but has not set out how they intend to address this which has led to the committee asking them to explain how and when the funding gap will be addressed.
Peredur Owen Griffiths, Chair of the Finance Committee, said, “We understand that the funding decisions facing the Welsh Government are extraordinarily tough, but we were surprised and worried at the lack of candour in the Draft Budget. This is not the right way to deal with our Committee and the Senedd generally, and undermines legitimate democratic scrutiny.
“The Draft Budget’s lack of detail – exacerbated by inflation and poor communication between Welsh and UK governments – is worrying, and it was surprising to learn that the Finance Minister had not made a proper assessment of changing the tax rates which suggests that it was never a serious consideration.”
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