27 October 2015

Dear Huw and Julie

Request for information to inform scrutiny of Draft Budget 2016-17

Thank you for agreeing to attend the Enterprise and Business Committee on 14 January to discuss the Welsh Government’s Draft Budget for 2016-17.

Last year’s budget report

As was the case last year, the Enterprise and Business Committee would like to be provided with the individual Budget Expenditure Lines for your portfolios that are relevant to this Committee.

Programme for Government commitments

With regard to the Programme for Government commitments within your portfolios, and which are relevant to the remit of this Committee, we would appreciate information in relation to:

• Details of the costs associated with the Programme for Government commitments during 2016-17 and/or any work being undertaken to assess such costs;
• Whether these commitments are deliverable within the available portfolio budget and details of any areas where affordability is a concern; and
• Information relating to how the delivery of the commitments in your portfolios and their associated outcomes will be monitored and evaluated to demonstrate value for money.

Key policies

Following on from our recent Committee Inquiries and our scrutiny of the draft budget last year, we would particularly like to receive information on the following policies and issues: 

· Support to help people, particularly young people, into work including Jobs Growth Wales and Traineeships;

· Apprenticeships and other work-based learning;

· The Youth Engagement and Progression Framework and other support aimed at young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET);

· Skills development, the Sector Priorities Funding and funding related to the Policy Statement on Skills;

· Details of European funding for all of the above bullet points;

· The impact on further education colleges of their 2014-15 and 2015-16 allocations and details of the engagement that has taken place with the sector to discuss their 2016-17 allocations; the impact of prioritising provision for 16-19 year olds; and the impact on part-time adult learning in further education colleges;

· The budget for Careers Wales and implications for their remit;

· Funding for Science for Wales, including promotion and support of STEM skills;

· Promotion and support of youth entrepreneurship;

· The budget for higher education, particularly the implications of any changes to the funding for HEFCW; an updated assessment of income for the higher education sector; and the latest modelling of the costs, affordability and value for money of the Tuition Fee Grant;

· Support for the Widening Access policy including budgets for the Welsh Government Learning Grant and Education Maintenance Allowance.

For each policy, as appropriate, we would like to see:

· Details of the costs and/or any work undertaken to assess the cost of delivering these policies for the period covered by the draft budget (2016-17);

· Information relating to how the delivery of the policy, and its associated outcomes, will be monitored and evaluated to demonstrate value for money.

We are also keen to see:

· how equality, sustainability and consideration for the Welsh language have influenced budget allocations; and

· in how the draft budget reflects the Welsh Government’s obligations under the Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, specifically how were the duties under the Act considered in preparing the draft budget and how it addresses the need to “maximise…[the Welsh Government’s]….contribution to achieving each of the wellbeing goals”.

Preventative Spending

We are interested, as we were last year, in considering preventative spending as part of our scrutiny of the Draft Budget. The definition of preventative spending which we are adopting for this purpose is:

…spending which focuses on preventing problems and eases future demand on services by intervening early, thereby delivering better outcomes and value for money.

With this definition in mind, we request information on:

· The proportion of the Education and Skills budget allocated to preventative spending measures;

· Details of specific policies or programmes in your portfolios relevant to the remit of this Committee that are intended to be preventative (including: support for young people who are not in education, employment or training; support to help people back into work; and skills development;) and

· How the value for money of such programmes is evaluated, with a particular focus on what the specific inputs and intended outcomes are.

Provision for Legislation

We would also like to see:

• Information on the extent to which any Welsh legislation of the Fourth Assembly is likely to have any direct or indirect impact on your portfolios in the 2016-17 financial year, in particular Further and Higher Education (Governance and Information) (Wales) Act 2014 and the Higher Education (Wales) Act 2015.
• Costs and financial implications of any subordinate legislation where these are significant and affect 2016-17.
• Information on the impact on the budget of any UK legislation, including any potential implications in the Draft Wales Bill, in your portfolio areas.

We would be grateful to receive the above information by 17 December 2015.

With many thanks for assisting us in our scrutiny work.

Yours sincerely

William Graham AM

Chair, Enterprise and Business Committee