Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what additional funding they have made available to the Welsh Government over and above the basic budget provision for Wales in the financial year 2023–24; and for what purposes any specific use was stipulated.

Spending Review 2021 set the largest annual block grant, in real terms, of any spending review settlement since the devolution Acts. This provided the Welsh Government with £2.5 billion in 2023-24 through the Barnett formula, on top of their £15.9 billion baseline. They also received over £320 million of ringfenced non-Barnett funding for 2023-24 for farming and fisheries.

On top of this settlement, the Welsh Government have received an additional £745 million through the Barnett formula for 2023-24, largely as a result of decisions made at Autumn Statement 2022 and Spring Budget 2023. They have also received around £450 million in non-Barnett funding for 2023-24 since Spending Review 2021.

It is for the devolved administrations to allocate their Barnett-based funding in devolved areas as they see fit. They can therefore take their own decisions on managing and investing available resources, reflecting their own priorities and local circumstances, and they are accountable to the devolved legislatures for these decisions. Non-Barnett funding is generally ringfenced, meaning it can only be spent for the purpose it was given.

A breakdown of Barnett and non-Barnett funding, including the policy areas for which the non-Barnett funding is ringfenced, can also be found in the Block Grant Transparency publication. This publication is updated regularly, and the most recent report was published in July 2023.