16/12/2015 - Written Assembly Questions and Answers

Published 10/12/2015   |   Last Updated 04/01/2016

Written Assembly Questions tabled on 9 December 2015 for answer on 16 December 2015

R - Signifies the Member has declared an interest.
W - Signifies that the question was tabled in Welsh.

(Self-identifying Question no. shown in brackets)

Written Questions must be tabled at least five working days before they are to be answered. In practice, Ministers aim to answer within seven/eight days but are not bound to do so. Answers are published in the language in which they are provided, with a translation into English of responses provided in Welsh.

To ask the Minister for Education and Skills

Angela Burns (Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire): How will the Minister set the new professional standards for teachers in 2016? (WAQ69570)

Answer received on 16 December 2015

The Minister for Education and Skills (Huw Lewis):

As part of the New Deal for the Education Workforce, a framework of revised professional standards for all registered practitioners will be consulted on early next year.

The new standards are being developed with the profession for the profession. Officials are working with classroom practitioners and education specialists to develop a cohesive set of standards that will support the whole profession to embrace the new curriculum and help to create leadership capacity throughout the system.

The standards will apply from career entry onwards, including initial teacher training, and help practitioners reflect on their achievements and identify priorities for professional growth throughout their career.

Angela Burns (Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire): What is the Minister's justification for the £85,376,000 reduction in resource funds for the Post-16 Learning and Improving Wellbeing, Reducing Inequality and Increasing Participation budget in the draft budget for 2016-17? (WAQ69574)

Answer received on 22 December 2015

Huw Lewis: 

This is not a reduction in resource funds.  The £85,376,000 is in relation to the accounting treatment of Student Loans and incorporates changes in the discount rate and the forecasting statistical model used.  It is Annual Managed Expenditure (AME) and, therefore, does not form part of the Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL). 

Angela Burns (Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire): What age group will be most affected by the Minister's decision to decrease funding for Employment and Skills and Educational and Career Choice resource budgets in order to increase funding for Youth Engagement and Employment in the draft budget for 2016-17? (WAQ69575)

Answer received on 22 December 2015

Huw Lewis:  The Employment and Skills and Educational and Career Choice budgets are not age specific.  The decrease in the Education and Skills budget is due to savings from the cessation of programmes and a change in activity delivery. Only a fraction of this saving has been transferred to the Youth Engagement and Employment budget.  Although there is a reduction in funding for Careers Choices this will be offset by efficiency savings within the organisation. 

Angela Burns (Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire): In the draft budget 2016-17, what budgets have experienced reductions in order to afford the proposed £39.7 million additional funding to schools? (WAQ69576)

Answer received on 16 December 2015

The Minister for Finance and Government Business (Jane Hutt): Against a backdrop of a budget that continues to reduce in real terms, we have been clear that we cannot continue to deliver the full range of services and programmes that we currently provide on the same basis and scale.  Our challenge has been to deliver our priorities within a tight financial settlement.  Details of our spending priorities for Wales and the impact on other areas are set out in the Draft Budget 2016-17 documentation which can be found at:

http://gov.wales/funding/budget/draft-budget-2016-17/?lang=en

To ask the Minister for the Economy, Science and Transport

Kirsty Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire): Will the Minister clarify how many weeks of the year the Youth Concessionary Fares Scheme covers? (WAQ69577)

Answer received on 11 December 2015

The Minister for the Economy, Science and Transport (Edwina Hart): The Young Persons Discounted Bus Travel scheme was implemented on 1 September 2015 and applies all day, seven days a week, throughout the year.

Suzy Davies (South Wales West): In relation to the draft budget 2016-17, how does the £1,435,000 cut to the Conserve, Protect, Sustain and Promote Access to the Historic and Natural Environment allocation align with Welsh Government principles of sustainability? (WAQ69578)

Answer received on 16 December 2015

Edwina Hart: This cut relates mainly to the Cadw budget. The reduction will be largely covered by projected increases to Cadw's income figures. This will make Cadw's budget position more sustainable into the future, and minimise the impact of the budget reduction.

Suzy Davies (South Wales West): What correspondence took place between the Welsh Government and Museums Wales and other involved third parties prior to the decision to cut £1,782,000 of resource and £70,000 of capital from the Museums, Archives and Libraries funding in the draft budget 2016-17? (WAQ69579)

Answer received on 16 December 2015

Edwina Hart: The Deputy Minister for Tourism, Culture & Sport meets with the Presidents and the Chief Executives of the National Museums and the National Library on a six monthly basis, and my officials also meet with their Chief Executives and Finance Directors on a quarterly basis. At these meetings, the budget position of each organisation is discussed in detail, and the National Museums and the National Library were invited to submit details of the impact of budget reductions.

To ask the Minister for Public Services

Janet Finch-Saunders (Aberconwy): Alongside changes to the Fire and Rescue Services National Framework in the draft budget for 2016-17, with just a £370,000 resource and £670,000 capital increase to Welsh Fire and Rescue Services, will the Minister confirm that this does not represent an overall funding cut to Welsh Fire and Rescue services? (WAQ69571)

Janet Finch-Saunders (Aberconwy): With regards to the draft budget 2016-17, what is the Minister's justification for taking £1,030,000 of resource funds and £670,000 of capital funds from the Fire and Rescue Services National Framework? (WAQ69573)

Answer recevied on 15 December 2015

The Minsiter for Public Services (Leighton Andrews):  The draft budget 2016-17 has merged the Fire and Rescue Resilience and Fire and Rescue Framework budgets into a new single Fire and Rescue Services budget for 2016-17.  That budget has fallen by 8.8% compared to the total of the separate budget lines in the current year. 

However, this budget represents less than 2% of Fire and Rescue Authority (FRA) expenditure; and the cut I have had to make is modest in that context.  The great majority of FRA expenditure is financed by contributions which FRAs require from their constituent Local Authorities.  FRAs themselves determine the level of those contributions, and thus their overall budgets.

The incidence of fire has more than halved since responsibility was devolved to Wales in 2004-5.   While it is clearly vital to maintain the capability to respond to any fire at any time, there is clear scope to make savings too.  This means FRA budgets have been falling in real terms for some time.   

Janet Finch-Saunders (Aberconwy): What is the Minister's justification for the £780,000 cut to the budget for Promoting Positive Engagement for Young People in the draft budget for 2016-17? (WAQ69572)

Answer received on 15 December 2015

Leighton Andrews:

In these times of austerity, we have all had to accommodate reductions in budgets and the 2016/17 grant funding for Promoting Positive Engagement for Young People (At risk of Offending) is no exception.  We expect greater collaboration across local authority areas, ensuring the funding is focused on supporting those young people with challenging behaviours on the cusp of entering the youth justice system.

To ask the Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty

Mark Isherwood (North Wales): In relation to the draft budget 2016-17, what is the Minister's justification for cutting homeless prevention by £524,000? (WAQ69580)

Answer received on 22 December 2015

The Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty (Lesley Griffiths): The continuing downward pressure on budgets as a result of the UK Government's Comprehensive Spending Review has presented numerous challenges and called for tough decisions. Ideally, I would have liked to have protected all my budgets. The Supporting People budget, which plays a very significant part in preventing homelessness, has been protected. In addition, I will be making another £2.2 million available to Local Authorities in 2016-17 to support the implementation of our new homelessness legislation, which was introduced in April this year by our Housing (Wales) Act 2014 and which has preventing homelessness at its heart.

To ask the Minister for Natural Resources

Russell George (Montgomeryshire): With regards to the draft budget 2016-17, how will the £3,673,000 cut to the resource budget for Agriculture and Food be dispersed throughout the portfolio? (WAQ69581)

Answer received on 22 December 2015

The Minister for Natural Resources (Carl Sargeant): I will write to you and a copy of the letter will be placed on the internet.