Concise Minutes - Finance Committee

Meeting Venue: Hybrid - Committee

room 4 Ty Hywel and video conference

via Zoom

Meeting date: Wednesday, 10 January 2024

Meeting time: 09.30 - 12.40
This meeting can be viewed
on Senedd TV at:
http://senedd.tv/en/13666

Hybrid

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Attendance

Category	Names
Members of the Senedd:	Peredur Owen Griffiths MS (Chair) Peter Fox MS Mike Hedges MS Rhianon Passmore MS
Witnesses:	Richard Hughes, Office for Budget Responsibility Professor David Miles, Office for Budget Responsibility Tom Josephs, Office for Budget Responsibility David Phillips, Institute for Fiscal Studies Guto Ifan, Wales Governance Centre Ed Poole, Wales Governance Centre Jessica Laimann, Women's Equality Network (WEN) Wales Dr Victoria Winckler, Bevan Foundation
Committee Staff:	Owain Roberts (Clerk) Leanne Hatcher (Second Clerk) Cerian Jones (Second Clerk) Mike Lewis (Deputy Clerk) Rhiannon Williams (Deputy Clerk) Martin Jennings (Researcher) Christian Tipples (Researcher) Božo Lugonja (Researcher)

<AI1>

Registration (09.00-09.15)

</AI1>

<AI2>

Private pre-meeting - Informal (09.15-09.30)

</AI2>

<AI3>

1 Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest

1.1 The Chair welcomed Members to the meeting of the Finance Committee.

</AI3>

<AI4>

2 Paper(s) to note

2.1 The paper was noted.

</AI4>

<AI5>

2.1 PTN 1 - Letter from the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Report on Outturn 2022-23 - 22 December 2023

</AI5>

<AI6>

3 Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 2

3.1 The Committee took evidence on the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 from Richard Hughes, Chair, Office for Budget Responsibility; Professor David Miles, Budget Responsibility Committee member, Office for Budget Responsibility; and Tom Josephs, Budget Responsibility Committee member, Office for Budget Responsibility.

3.2 The Office for Budget Responsibility agreed to provide:

· A note on the timescale of work being undertaken in relation to  developments in forecasting.

</AI6>

<AI7>

Break (10.15-10.25)

</AI7>

<AI8>

4 Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 3

4.1 The Committee took evidence on the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 from David Phillips, Associate Director, Institute for Fiscal Studies; Dr Ed Poole, Senior Lecturer, Wales Governance Centre (Wales Fiscal Analysis); and Guto Ifan, Lecturer, Wales Governance Centre (Wales Fiscal Analysis)

</AI8>

<AI9>

Break (11.25-11.35)

</AI9>

<AI10>

5 Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 4

5.1 The Committee took evidence on the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 from Jessica Laimann, Wales Women’s Budget Group / Policy and Public Affairs Manager at Women’s Equality Network (WEN) Wales; and Victoria Winckler, Director, Bevan Foundation.

5.2 The Bevan Foundation agreed to provide the Committee with:

· Calculations it had undertaken in relation to extending the eligibility for free school meals in secondary schools.

</AI10>

<AI11>

6 Motion under Standing Order 17.42 (ix) to resolve to exclude the public from the remainder of this meeting

6.1 The motion was agreed.

</AI11>

<AI12>

7 Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Consideration of evidence

7.1 The Committee considered the evidence received.

</AI12>

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