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Yesterday, the Finance Minister, Rebecca Evans (Lab, Gower), tabled the second supplementary budget of the 2020-21 financial year.
The scale and suddenness of the changes brought about by the Covid-19 response resulted in the Welsh Government’s accounts for 2019-20 (pdf) being qualified by Audit Wales – which in any other year would’ve been a big story in itself.
Measures in the second supplementary budget – almost all related to the Covid-19 pandemic and listed in the Finance Committee’s report (pdf) – include (but are not limited to):
- £800million for a “stabilisation package” for the NHS to deal with winter pressures.
- An additional £306.6million for local authority hardship funds.
- £113million to support rail services and £94.7million for bus services (mainly offset by cuts to capital spending).
- Just under £40million in revenue and capital funding for homelessness programmes.
- £39.7million has been transferred from the Economic Resilience Fund to support employment and training.
- £33million for a new field hospital in the Cardiff & Vale health board to replace Dragon’s Heart Hospital (Principality Stadium).
Chair of the Finance Committee, Llyr Gruffydd MS (Plaid, North Wales) said his committee’s report raised concerns about transparency, particularly a lack of clarity over whether UK Government announcements result in additional funding for Wales and a lack of detail from the Welsh Government over specific items in the supplementary budget.
Elsewhere, there were concerns about the lack of funding (or lack of detail on funding) for fuel poverty, flood management and the track and trace problem.
