2 November 2015

Dear Minister

Welsh Government Draft Budget 2016-17

I would like to invite you to attend a meeting of the Committee on Thursday 21 January 2016 to give evidence in connection with the Welsh Government’s draft budget 2016-17.

The evidence session is scheduled for three quarters of an hour, beginning at 09.00. The meeting will be held in Committee Room 2 at the National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff Bay.  It would be helpful if you could provide the Committee with a bilingual paper in relation to the draft budget by Wednesday 6 January.  The Committee would be particularly grateful to receive information on the budgetary matters highlighted in the annex to this letter.

Yours sincerely

Christine Chapman AC / AM

Cadeirydd / Chair

Annex

During previous years’ draft budget scrutiny, the Committee welcomed the improvements made in the presentation and clarity of the Welsh Government’s budget documents and the papers that Ministers and Deputy Ministers submitted to Assembly committees. 

The Committee has also previously welcomed the improvements made to the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) process, particularly the establishment of the Budget Advisory Group on Equality (BAGE) and the appreciative inquiry undertaken by the Equality and Human Rights Commission into the EIA process. 

The Committee recognises that the Minister for Finance does not have overall responsibility for equality, however considers it important that the Minister provides information on how equality is considered in the overall draft budget process.

In particular, the Committee would like information about:

· the work of the BAGE and what influence is has had over budget decisions;

· examples of how the EIA was used during the budget planning process;

· the integrated approach to assessing equality and sustainability impacts in the budget;

· the evidence base in terms of assessing the equality impact of budgetary decisions.