Select committee: Welsh Affairs Committee
Conclusion 10
4th Report: Wales and the Shared Prosperity Fund: Priorities for the replacement of EU structural funding
Published 2 Oct 2020
Paragraph 73
Addressed to Wales Office
Welsh Affairs Committee Wales and the Shared Prosperity Fund All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Despite repeated assurances from UK Government that it would respect the devolution settlements of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, there are considerable ambiguities about where power will lie in relation to the Shared Prosperity Fund. It is unclear whether, as a result of the provisions in the Internal Market Bill, Whitehall plans to oversee the administration of the Fund directly, or if the financial assistance powers contained within the Bill are intended to operate separately to the Fund. In either event, we believe the UK Government would be ill-advised to lose or ignore the expertise that has been built up in the devolved administration’s European Funding Offices.
From: Welsh Affairs Committee, 4th Report: Wales and the Shared Prosperity Fund: Priorities for the replacement of EU structural funding (HC 90), paragraph 73, 2 October 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 December 2020 (deadline 2 December 2020).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government responds to each of the Committee's six recommendations, setting out its plans for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and intending to work with the Welsh Government, without stating that it accepts or rejects individual recommendations.
- On funding levels, the government says it "will ramp up" UKSPF investment so that UK-wide domestic funding "will at least match current EU receipts, on average reaching around £1.5 billion a year".
- It states it will provide £220m of additional funding in 2021-22 for local areas to pilot programmes and new approaches, with further details "in the New Year".
- On bureaucracy, it "recognises the bureaucratic burden" of EU structural funds and says details of the UKSPF's operation will be set out in a UK-wide investment framework "published in the spring".
- On working with the Welsh Government, it says it "intends to work with" it and local communities, and that the UKSPF's funding profile "will be set out at the next Spending Review".