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Government of Wales Bill

As the noble Baroness has explained, Clause 124(3) requires the Welsh Ministers to accompany an annual budget motion with a written statement showing, for the relevant financial year, the total payments that they estimate will be made, under three headings: by the Secretary of State into the Welsh Consolidated Fund under Clause 117(1); by Ministers of the Crown and government departments to the Welsh Ministers, the First Minister and the Counsel General; and by any other person or body to the Welsh Ministers, the First Minister and the Counsel General. The purpose of the written statement is to inform Assembly debate on the budget motion moved by the Welsh Ministers by providing an estimate of the total payments going into the Welsh Consolidated Fund during the relevant financial year. This adds to the transparency and accountability of the Assembly’s budget process. Although Clause 124(3)(a) expressly refers to ““section 117(1)””, which requires the Secretary of State to make payments into the Welsh Consolidated Fund from time to time, Clause 124(3)(b) does not expressly refer to Clause 117(2), which gives Ministers of the Crown and government departments an express statutory power to make payments to the Welsh Ministers. The reason for what may appear to my noble friends to be an inconsistency in drafting, spotted by the noble Baroness, is that Ministers of the Crown have other powers, aside from that under Clause 117(2), to make such payments. For example, the Commissioners of Customs and Excise have an express statutory power to refund overpaid VAT to the Welsh Ministers under Section 41(3) of the Value Added Tax Act 1994. Clause 117(2) is not intended to be the sole source of power for UK Ministers and government departments to make payments to the Welsh Ministers. Rather, it is intended to plug a gap in their existing powers to make such payments—for example, in the case of non-ministerial government departments which could not rely on the common law Ram doctrine to make payments to the Welsh Ministers. The effect of the amendment would be that, instead of having to record all payments which they estimate will be made to them by Ministers of the Crown and the UK Government in their written statement, the Welsh Ministers would be obliged to record only those payments made in reliance on the express statutory power in Clause 117(2). This would reduce the scope of that statement and would therefore compromise Assembly Members’ ability to scrutinise the annual budget motion. As Clause 124(3)(b) is currently drafted, the Welsh Ministers would be obliged to include in their written statement not only payments made to them in reliance on Clause 117(2) but also any other payments which they estimate will be made to them by Ministers of the Crown and government departments, irrespective of the power under which they are made. That will give Assembly Members a complete picture of the total payments which the Welsh Ministers expect to receive from the UK Government when considering the annual budget motion. So the omission of the words ““under section 117(2)”” from the drafting of Clause 124(3)(b) is deliberate and is intended to maximise Welsh Ministers’ accountability to the Assembly. Therefore, we feel that it is not appropriate or necessary to refer expressly to ““section 117(2)”” in this clause and, in the light of this explanation, I hope that the noble Baroness will feel able to withdraw the amendment.