Oral Answers to Questions

Tommy Sheppard Excerpts

Wednesday 15th May 2019 Commons Chamber

[Alun Cairns]

I will ensure that Wales receives its fair share. Let me point to the record of the hon. Lady’s party in government and my party’s record in government. As a result of the new fair funding settlement, Wales receives £120 for every £100 spent in England, far in excess of anything that her party ever did.

[Tommy Sheppard (Edinburgh East) (SNP)]

6. What assessment the Government have made of the potential merits of devolving the administration of welfare to the Welsh Government.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Kevin Foster)]

The Silk commission’s analysis in 2014 concluded that social security, including welfare, should remain non-devolved. This recommendation had cross-party support when it was considered under the St David’s Day process.

[Tommy Sheppard]

Does not the experience in Scotland, where even a limited devolution of social security powers has allowed the Scottish Government to mitigate the worst excesses of Tory austerity and reduce rates of absolute child poverty, show that devolution works, and is it not time to allow the Welsh Government to design a social security system that fits the character and the aspirations of the people of Wales?

[Kevin Foster]

I must say that those who look at the social security system and at devolution in Scotland may draw a different picture from that being presented by our separatist colleagues. The reality is that there were a number of powers devolved in the Scotland Act 2016 that their party in Holyrood has decided not to use. I am afraid that those looking at Scotland will come to a very different conclusion from the one that the hon. Gentleman suggests.