Clause 15 - Money
Transport (Wales) Bill
12:00 pm
Bill Wiggin ((Also Shadow Secretary of State for Wales), Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Leominster, Conservative)
I am deeply unhappy with that explanation. The explanation that the Minister did not give us is why the Government do not simply increase the block grant. There is no need to use the Bill as an excuse to give the Assembly more money; the Government can simply do that. There is no restriction on extra funding to Wales at any stage; it will be “Barnetted” and go into the block grant. The Government have already proposed to increase the block grant for Wales on a year-on-year basis until 2012. I am curious about why, suddenly, we need the belt and braces of the clause.