Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment has she made of the potential impact of the Government's plans to abolish NHS England on the future amounts of health related consequential funding that the Welsh Government will receive under the Barnett formula.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Barnett formula is applied when departmental budgets change – not when departments announce changes in policy.
The Department for Health and Social Care are working through the implications of abolishing NHS England and will provide further details in due course. For any funding implications, the Barnett formula will apply in the usual way as set out in the Statement of Funding Policy.
A full breakdown of devolved government funding is set out in the Block Grant Transparency, the next iteration of which will be published in due course.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to protect consumers from the impact of the recent increase in the energy price cap; and whether his Department plans to take steps to ensure that utility companies reflect falls in wholesale prices in consumer energy costs.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The energy price cap will rise for the period 1 April to 30 June 2025 due to an increase in international gas prices.
The Government believes the only way to protect consumers permanently is to speed up the transition towards homegrown clean energy. The creation of Great British Energy will help us to harness clean energy and have less reliance on volatile international energy markets and help in our commitment to make Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030.
We continue to monitor energy prices and the price cap and are working to ensure bills are affordable for consumers in the long-term, including through our work with Ofgem to reform standing charges, and through our Warm Homes Plan which will upgrade millions of homes to make them warmer and cheaper to run.