Ken Skates AM Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism

 

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 an hour, beginning at 10.45.  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

 

Request for information from the Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism from the Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee to inform scrutiny of draft budget 2016-17

 

Presentation of the budget

The Finance Committee has welcomed the improvements made to the presentation of the budget in recent years, and recommended that work should continue to further improve the transparency of how the budget allocations are aligned to the Programme for Government commitments.

As was the case last year, the Committee would like to be provided with the individual Budget Expenditure Lines for your portfolio which are relevant to this Committee.

Programme for Government commitments

With regard to the Welsh Government’s Programme for Government commitments within your portfolio which are relevant to the remit of this Committee, the Committee would appreciate information in relation to:

 

Key policies

Following on from its scrutiny of the draft budget last year, the Committee would particularly like to receive information on the following: 

·         prior to deciding on budget allocations, information about the nature of the dialogue you had with the organisations and stakeholders charged with delivering policies within your portfolio;

·         how implementation of the Historic Environment Strategy has impacted on the allocations for the historic environment, and information about how this links with the Strategy’s outcomes to date and future outcomes;

·         how implementation of the provisions within the Historic Environment (Wales) Bill has impacted on the allocations for the historic environment;

·         details on how the allocations for the National Museum Wales and National Library of Wales were decided upon;

·         information on the level of funding provided to implement the Libraries Inspire strategy and the Museums Strategy for Wales, including how this links with the strategies’ outcomes to date and future outcomes; 

·         how the recommendations of the recent Expert review of local museum provision have influenced allocations relating to the museum sector;

·         how the continuing need to tackle barriers to arts participation and to promote access to the arts has impacted on budget allocations for the arts;

·         priorities for the media and broadcasting policy in Wales and how these are reflected in budget allocations;

·         an update on the specific impact the recent reductions in funding for the Welsh Books Council has had to date;

·         given the Committee’s concerns last year about the reduction in revenue for the sports and physical activity Spending Programme Area, an update on the impact this had to date on participation levels, and how this has influenced budget allocations for 2016-17;

·         the work that has been undertaken to monitor and mitigate the impact of the reduction in local government funding on the delivery of local services within your portfolio area (e.g. library, museum and archive services; local sport and leisure services; smaller and third sector organisations working in the fields of the historic environment and the arts).

For each policy, as appropriate, the Committee 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;

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

 

The Committee is also keen to see how equality, sustainability and consideration for the Welsh language have influenced budget allocations.

Preventative Spending

As with last year, the Committee is interested in considering preventative spending as part of its scrutiny of the draft budget 2016-17. The definition of preventative spending which is being adopted 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, the Committee requests information on:

·         the proportion of the Culture and Sport budget allocated to preventative spending measures;

·         details of specific policies or programmes in your portfolio, relevant to the remit of this Committee, that are intended to be preventative; 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

The Committee would also like to see:

·         information on the extent to which any Welsh legislation which has been passed, is currently being passed, or is planned in the legislative programme, is likely to have any direct or indirect impact on your portfolio in the 2015-16 financial year, in particular the Historic Environment (Wales) Bill.

·         information on the impact on the budget of any UK legislation in your portfolio area.