Welsh Government Budget 2012-13

The Welsh Government will announce the draft budget for 2012-13 on 4 October 2011. The budget will then be scrutinised by the National Assembly for Wales – this will involve the various subject committees (Health & Social Services; Children & Young People; Environment & Sustainability; Enterprise & Business; Communities, Equality & Local Government) each undertaking scrutiny of their own area of the budget. They will then feed this into the Finance Committee who will undertake general budget scrutiny, take account of the other Committees’ reports and publish their own report (by 8 November). The Welsh Government will then have to take account of this before publishing its final budget for 2012-13 which will need to pass a vote in the Senedd.

Each of the Committees will ask a range of organisations for their views to help inform their budget scrutiny process and this is an excellent opportunity for you to have your say if you feel that a decision in the budget may negatively affect your organisation or the people you work with. However, due to the timescales there is only a very short window of opportunity in October for you to feed in your views.

WCVA has prepared a briefing paper on the Welsh Government Budget 2012 - 2013. Click here for more information.

The timeline below outlines some of the main dates in the budget planning process.

4th October 2011
The Welsh Government publishes its Draft Budget. The Draft Budget sets out how available resources will be distributed between Ministerial portfolios and spending programme areas.
October-December
Assembly scrutiny of the Welsh Government's Draft Budget.
15th November 2011
The National Assembly for Wales will debate the Draft Budget.
29th November 2011
Final Budget laid before the National Assembly for Wales.
6th December 2011
The National Assembly for Wales will debate and vote on the Final Budget.

Budget Scrutiny

Below you will find details of the National Assembly for Wales Committees that will be scrutinising the budget and where to send your submissions to them. There is a very short window of time between the budget being published on 4 October and the scrutiny committees reporting to the Finance Committee (who consider each scrutiny committee report as part of their consideration of the budget) so you need to act fast.

The Welsh Government’s draft budget will come under further scrutiny this week when Assembly cross-party committees take evidence on the different portfolio areas that the budget covers.

The Children and Young People Committee will scrutinise Leighton Andrews AM, Minister for Education and Skills, Gwenda Thomas AM, Deputy Minister for Children and Social Services and Lesley Griffiths AM, Minister for Health and Social Services (19 October).

The Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee will hear from Carl Sargeant AM, Minister for Local Government and Communities, Leighton Andrews AM, Minister for Education and Skills and Edwina Hart AM, Minister for Business, Enterprise, Technology and Science (19 October).

The Environment and Sustainability Committee will take evidence from John Griffiths AM, Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development (19 October).

The Finance Committee will hear from Carl Sargeant AM, Minister for Local Government and Communities (20 October).

The Enterprise and Business Committee will also hear from Carl Sargeant AM, Minister for Local Government and Communities (20 October).

The Health and Social Care Committee will scrutinise Lesley Griffiths AM, Minister for Health and Social Services and Gwenda Thomas AM, Deputy Minister for Children and Social Services (20 October).

You can find a full list of which AMs are on each committee here.