Bluetongue Disease: Finance
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether Wales will receive any consequential funding through the Barnett formula as a result of UK Government actions on the bluetongue virus in England.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Barnett formula is applied in the usual way, as set out in the Statement of Funding policy, to all changes to Defra’s budget. It is applied when departmental budgets change - not when departments announce how they are spending their budgets.
Barnett consequentials provided to the Welsh Government are not ringfenced for a specific policy area. It is for the Welsh Government to allocate their funding in devolved areas, including agriculture, as they see fit. The Welsh Government can therefore take its own decisions on managing and investing available resources, reflecting its own priorities and local circumstances, and it is accountable to the Senedd for these decisions.
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