Barnett Consequentials

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Cabinet Office – in the Senedd at 1:56 pm on 15 May 2024.

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Photo of Gareth Davies Gareth Davies Conservative 1:56, 15 May 2024

Thank you very much. The cost of childcare in Wales for a child aged two is 63 per cent of a parent's average take-home pay, and as the parent of a daughter who is under two years old, I know from first-hand experience that it costs nearly £1,000 a month for her to be in full-time nursery, and many other parents in the Vale of Clwyd feel the same. With close links between the north-east of Wales and England, people are seeing, particularly in border areas, the positive news coming from the UK Government in terms of childcare funding being in place from nine months and the clear disparity of that being not the case in Wales, with that being two years. I've got many constituents who are desperate to get back to work, they enjoy working, they're young, they're ambitious, they want to do things in life and they want to get back to work, knowing that there's a robust nursery system in place to support their ambitions. So, what would your message be to my constituents who are desperate to get back to work and see the obvious and ever-growing disparity between the systems in England and Wales?

Cabinet

The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.

It is chaired by the prime minister.

The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.

Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.

However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.

War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.

From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.

The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.