Y Pwyllgor Menter a Busnes
Enterprise and Business Committee

Edwina Hart AM

Minister for Economy, Science and Transport

Welsh Government

10 December 2013

Dear Edwina

Budget Scrutiny session 19 February 2014

Thank you for agreeing to attend the Committee on 19 February from 11.00 to 12.30. The purpose of the session is for the Committee to:

· consider the six-monthly update which you agreed to provide for us in response to our recommendations in our scrutiny of your budget proposals for 2014-15;

· look at out-turn and performance for the 2012-13 financial year compared with the budget plans; and

· scrutinise the in-year position for 2013-14 following publication of the second Supplementary Budget to explore any changes against the first supplementary budget 2013-14 and the decisions behind those changes.

In order to help your officials prepare papers for the session, we would like to see information on all of the objectives set and outcomes achieved by your Department in 2012-13; the associated resource allocations; how performance was evaluated; and details of any transfers made. This should include transport outcomes even though these were not within your portfolio at the time. 

We are particularly interested in the following areas:

· the promotion of trade and inward investment

· each of the nine priority sectors

· the repayable business finance scheme

· Enterprise Zones

· support for micro-enterprises

· social enterprise support

· the Wales Economic Growth Fund

· sustainable and integrated transport, including walking and cycling/active travel; public transport (bus, rail and community transport, including concessionary fares); and regional transport planning.

For each of those areas we should like to receive the following information:

· resources allocated in the Final Budget 2012-13 and which outcomes and outputs those resources were expected to achieve

· details of any in-year changes to those allocations and explanations for the change

· actual expenditure in 2012-13, presented on a comparable basis to the budget allocations, and explanations for any differences compared with budget allocations

· outputs and outcomes achieved as a result of this expenditure and how performance was evaluated

· how this influenced or informed budget allocations in each area for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 financial years.

Members would also like to receive detail on Finance Wales; how the Department has used external sources of finance such as EU funding, the European Investment Bank and the Green Investment Bank alongside its own resources; and how the department contributes financially to the Welsh Government’s cross-departmental commitments relating to poverty, sustainable development and the Welsh language.

We would be grateful to receive your paper by 5 February 2014. If there is relevant information in terms of changes in allocations relating to the above areas in the second supplementary budget in February 2014 perhaps that could be provided in a separate paper once it is laid before the Assembly.

Many thanks for assisting us in our work.

Yours sincerely

Nick Ramsay AM

Chair, Enterprise and Business Committee