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2016-21 – COVID-19, Brexit and Constitutional Change
The past five years have been marked by unprecedented changes and challenges across Welsh society and our economy. The COVID-19 pandemic has turned people’s lives upside down throughout Wales and has dominated the work of the Welsh Government and public services in Wales – just as it has in the other nations of the UK and across the world. Every lever at our disposal has been used to protect lives and livelihoods as we have done everything in our power to keep Wales safe in the face of a public health emergency on a scale which none of us have experienced in our lifetimes. During this term, we have had the Brexit referendum and we have left the European Union. Much of this term has been consumed by preparing to leave the EU, including making sure our laws operate outside the EU. For a very long time, we have been working to mitigate the very real threat of a no-deal scenario, which would have been catastrophic for Welsh businesses and the Welsh economy. This Senedd term has also seen significant constitutional shifts, including the Wales Act 2017 and the introduction of the Welsh Revenue Authority to manage devolved taxes in Wales.
Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in Wales
Since early 2020, the Welsh Government has mobilised its resources to respond to the global COVID-19 pandemic. It has been an unprecedented event, with huge impacts on the lives of every single one of us. The Welsh Government has been almost entirely responsible for handling the pandemic response in Wales, working in partnership with the four nations whilst leading on our substantial devolved responsibilities. This has been a challenge unprecedented in the two decades of devolution to date. Ministers have taken far-reaching decisions, balancing the need to protect lives, with the need to protect livelihoods. At every step, we have engaged with the Welsh public, explaining clearly and honestly the very serious situation we face as a nation. When we have had to place restrictions on people’s lives, we have followed the science and set out why these are necessary, to protect the NHS and save lives. The scope and scale of the pandemic has had an impact on every part of the Welsh Government’s work. Our NHS and care system has responded magnificently to the biggest challenge in its history, saving lives and protecting health. But this has come at a tremendous cost. Frontline staff have faced extreme pressures in very difficult circumstances over many months and routine treatment has had to be postponed. The NHS has been allocated over £1.5bn in 2020-21 to ensure it has the funding it needs to deal with the health impact of the pandemic. This includes additional funding to develop NHS Wales Test Trace Protect, to puchase PPE at an unprecedented scale and to rollout the biggest vaccination programme the country has ever seen. Our local authorities have been at the forefront of the crisis response, working hard to keep the services we all rely on running. We have made more than £1bn available for local authority services to help sustain provision for those who need it most. The Welsh economy, like that of the UK as a whole, has been profoundly affected by the pandemic. We have put in place the most generous package of business support anywhere in the UK, including specific and tailored support for sectors worst affected, such as hospitality and tourism. Overall, we have made more than £2bn available to support businesses, including establishing our bespoke Economic Resilience Fund, which has helped to safeguard jobs. The pandemic continues to affect every single one of us. Helping people has been at the core of our response as a government. We have provided
a £13.9m boost to the Discretionary Assistance Fund to help families suffering financial hardship during the lockdown; over £50m to provide free school meals throughout the year, including during school holidays and £8.5m to extend mental health support, including for children experiencing increased stress or anxiety as a result of the virus. We have ensured that everyone has a place to stay during the pandemic by allowing local authorities to claim additional funding - on average £1.6m is being claimed from this fund each month to help some of the most vulnerable people in Wales. Since the start of the pandemic, over 5,000 people have been supported into accommodation, an achievement we are truly proud of. Test Trace Protect was established at an unprecendent pace and scale as part of our response to COVID-19. Staff were re-deployed and recruited, sampling and testing infrastructure established and an all Wales digital contact tracing system developed in a matter of weeks. Our Test Trace Protect system has successfully contacted over 145,000 positives cases (a 99% success rate) and 333,000 close contacts to date. This is testament to our partnership approach in Wales with localised contact tracing teams in place that understand the geography and needs of our communities. In support of the third sector and volunteering, we launched the £24m Welsh Government Third Sector COVID-19 Response Fund. We established an expert Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic COVID-19 Advisory Group to reduce risks to communities which have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and to promote fairness and equality across Wales. An enormous amount of work has been done quickly and effectively this year to ensure people in Wales have been supported through this difficult and turbulent time. This could not have been achieved without the unprecedented level of collaboration between people and partners, as well as the bravery and resilience of people across Wales. By following the rules, looking out for vulnerable people in our communities and simply being kind and compassionate, time and time again, people in Wales have helped to control the course of the pandemic and have helped to save lives. Since March 2020 nearly 23,000 people have volunteered on the Volunteering Wales website. We are particularly thankful for their contribution and the efforts of all critical workers who have made a profound contribution to the wellbeing of the nation in this extraordinary year.
Brexit
The EU referendum took place just a few weeks into this Senedd term. The outcome had an immediate impact on our work as a government as we began the work of preparing Wales for a future outside the European Union. The UK’s membership of the EU ended on 31 January 2020. We have always sought to work constructively with the UK Government since the 2016 referendum – on the negotiations with the EU, on preparing for the various no deal scenarios and on effective governance and collaboration within the UK. Preparing for a future outside the EU has required significant change to Welsh legislation to ensure as smooth a transition as possible. This work has been complex and demanding, and the UK negotiating approach has resulted in a vast amount of cross-government energy and resources being placed into contingency planning. We have also had to contend with the UK Government’s repeated refusal to properly recognise devolved boundaries in both its policy-making and legislation around EU exit, including in the Internal Market Act, which represents a serious threat to devolution. To defend the Senedd from this attack on its competence, we have now issued formal legal proceedings to seek permission for a judicial review. Now a trade deal has been agreed, crucial work has been undertaken to reflect the implications of the agreement in our End of Transition Action Plan. Although we have a deal, Welsh businesses, in particular, face significant change, which will be further compounded by the ongoing impact of the pandemic. The end of transition and the implementation of the deal will be felt in the months ahead – there is ongoing work to be done and we will continue to work with the UK Government wherever there are
shared interests. We will also continue to push the UK Government on areas of devolved competency where more support is needed to ensure we can deliver the best outcomes for Wales.
Constitutional change
We have seen many important constitutional changes this term, changing the context under which we deliver our work. The Wales Act 2017 changed the devolution settlement for Wales so the Senedd could legislate on matters not reserved to the UK Parliament instead of on matters devolved to it. The Act also gave the Senedd and Welsh Government new responsibilities, including for Senedd and local government elections in Wales. In this year’s Senedd elections, the first under the aegis of the Welsh Government, the franchise has been extended to 16 and 17-year-olds and qualifying citizens from overseas. The Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020 renamed the National Assembly, as well as Acts of the Assembly, and various bodies and offices relating to the institution. As of 6 May 2020, the parliament for Wales is now the Senedd, ‘Senedd Cymru’. This has been one of the busiest terms since Wales gained primary law-making powers, with 17 Acts receiving Royal Assent and a further two expected by May 2021. We achieved this despite facing unprecedented pressures on our legal resources. We met the incredible legislative challenge presented by Brexit, as highlighted elsewhere in this report. The pandemic has also had a major impact on our legislative programme. Since the crisis began, we have made more than 120 pieces of subordinate legislation to protect public health and to enable our public services to continue to operate in these changed circumstances. We have:
• Ensured our planning system enabled field hospitals to be set up quickly
• Put protections in place for tenants who are struggling to pay their rent • Relaxed curriculum and assessment requirements so schools can focus on supporting pupils’ learning
• Enabled democratically-elected bodies to continue to hold meetings and engage with their residents remotely
Despite these unprecedented challenges, we have used our legislative powers to great effect across the term, focusing on changes which make the biggest impact for people. The devolution of taxes in Wales marked an historic moment in Welsh political history. After the Wales Act 2014 devolved taxation to the Welsh Government, we have created and then worked with the Welsh Revenue Authority to design and implement Welsh taxes, which reflect our distinctive circumstances. Welsh taxes are essential to help fund the vital public services on which so many people rely. Land transaction tax (LTT) replaced stamp duty land tax in Wales from April 2018 and is collected by the Welsh Revenue Authority. This means we can set tax rates that reflect the nature of the housing market in Wales, ensuring they are fair and effective. Wales is the only country in the UK with a starting threshold for LTT higher than the average price of a home. This means the majority of homebuyers do not pay tax when buying a home. This is an example of our progressive approach to tax – making sure that tax burdens fall most on those with the broadest shoulders. In 2019, the Wales Act provided the Welsh Government with the ability to vary the rates of income tax, giving us an additional degree of independent financial power and flexibility. Our approach to Welsh Rates of Income Tax is to set rates which make sense for Wales and reflect the circumstances of our specific Welsh tax base.
