Cost of Living 2024-05-08

2024-05-08

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Response quality

Questions & Answers

Q1 Partial Answer
Context
The cost of living has increased due to the aftermath of COVID and the war in Ukraine.
What recent assessment has been made on how increases in the cost of living affect people in Wales?
The UK Government recognises the challenges from cost of living pressures and have committed to the triple lock on pensions, increased the living wage benefiting 140,000 people in Wales, and put an average £701 back into the pocket of a typical worker in Wales through national insurance cuts.
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Under Review Under Consideration
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Q2 Partial Answer
Liz Twist Lab
Blaydon and Consett
Context
The Trussell Trust reported that one fifth of people in Wales have cut back on or skipped meals.
What conversations is the Secretary of State having with supermarkets about holding down the cost of food for customers?
Many supermarkets support local food banks, and UK Government extra payments to pensioners, those on benefits and disability. However, questions about cost of living pressures should be directed at Welsh Labour for supporting a plan to create dozens of extra Senedd Members costing £120 million.
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Changing The Subject
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Q3 Partial Answer
Context
A Citizens Advice Cymru study found that over half a million people in Wales are struggling to make ends meet.
Is the Secretary of State aware of the study indicating more than half a million people in Wales are having difficulty making ends meet, and what is being done about it?
The UK Government have made extra payments to pensioners and those on benefits, increased pensions and minimum wage with inflation. Also delivered five towns funds, four growth deals, three rounds of levelling-up funding, two investment zones, two freeports, an electric arc furnace in south Wales and an electrified rail line in north Wales.
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Changing The Subject
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Q4 Partial Answer
Context
The Secretary of State mentioned Ukraine and COVID as contributing factors to cost of living pressures but did not mention Brexit.
Did the Secretary of State forget to mention Brexit's role in the cost of living crisis?
Brexit was voted for by a majority in Wales and UK, and since then the UK has grown faster than France and Germany. Other measures like Scottish embassies, ferries, raising taxes, shutting down oil and gas industry are unlikely to help with cost of living pressures.
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Changing The Subject
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Q5 Partial Answer
Context
A company received £400,000 from Development Bank of Wales and donated £200,000 to the First Minister.
Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is unacceptable for a company to receive £400,000 from the Development Bank of Wales and donate £200,000 to the First Minister?
My hon. Friend raises a very interesting point about the loan given by Development Bank Wales being used for political donations, but it is not a question for me; instead, my opposition should answer it as they have been silent on this matter.
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Changing The Subject
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Q6 Partial Answer
Context
Small businesses in retail and hospitality are affected by cost of living pressures, with different levels of business rate relief between England and Wales.
Does my right hon. Friend share concern that the funding for 75% business rate relief scheme in England is not used to the same degree in Wales?
My right hon. Friend is correct; UK Government ensured money was passed for discount but Welsh Labour decided to spend it elsewhere, resulting in pubs paying thousands more in Wales than across border in England.
Assessment & feedback
Changing The Subject
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Q7 Partial Answer
Jessica Morden Lab
Newport East
Context
The party has frozen tax thresholds, adding £960 extra on average to the tax bills of around 400,000 pensioners in Wales.
Will the Secretary of State explain how the Government will afford scrapping national insurance and ruling out raising income tax or scrapping winter fuel payments?
We want to keep the triple lock on pensions, ensure growth in economy by ending double taxation through national insurance. We will make cuts only when affordable and do not believe in unfunded promises for votes.
Assessment & feedback
Under Review Under Consideration
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Q8 Partial Answer
Liz Saville-Roberts PC
Dwyfor Meirionnydd
Context
The current situation involves allegations of integrity issues against the First Minister, including message deletions and questionable donations. This context raises concerns about the commitment to transparency.
More than one in four children in Wales lives in poverty. Devolution has the capacity to transform people's lives, but the current First Minister is distracted by questions about his integrity, deleting messages and taking dodgy donations. After 25 years since the start of devolution, does the Secretary of State agree that Governments at both ends of the M4 need to recommit to integrity and transparency?
I can absolutely assure the right hon. Lady that this Government, and the Conservative party, are completely committed to integrity—Labour Members are laughing, but their own First Minister took £200,000 from a convicted criminal—one who had received £400,000 from a bank for which the First Minister is responsible—and told the covid committee that all the messages on his phone had been accidentally deleted by the IT department, but now we see a screenshot in which he urges people to delete their messages so that they cannot be subject to a freedom of information request. I say that the right hon. Lady makes a very good point: let us collapse the coalition and stop supporting the Welsh Labour Government.
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Q9 Partial Answer
Liz Saville-Roberts PC
Dwyfor Meirionnydd
Context
The context involves the Tories in the Senedd voting against a Plaid Cymru motion to set a cap on political donations, and their party has not returned a £10 million donation from an individual with controversial remarks.
My party seeks to make a difference to the lives of the people of Wales, but the Secretary of State and I are in agreement for once when it comes to his judgments in relation to the First Minister. It screams hypocrisy, however, because the Tories in the Senedd voted against a Plaid Cymru motion to set a cap on political donations, and his party has still not returned a £10 million donation from a man who made racist and misogynistic remarks. In that spirit of open democracy, will he support a cap on donations to political parties?
I will not sit here and start making policy on the hoof, but I say to the right hon. Lady—and I think she would agree—that I would not have taken hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations from somebody who had been convicted twice of environmental offences.
Assessment & feedback
specific commitment to a cap on political donations
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