• UK Government will provide a record £18 billion per year to the Welsh Government.
• Wales will also benefit from UK-wide support for people and businesses, green jobs and investment to level up opportunities.
• Targeted funding will support local projects across Wales, including road and infrastructure improvements, investment in local communities and funding for businesses.

The Chancellor today (27 October) announced Barnett-based funding for the Welsh Government of £18 billion per year – delivering the largest annual funding settlement since devolution over 20 years ago. This includes a £2.5 billion per year spending boost as part of a Budget and Spending Review that delivers a stronger economy for the whole of the UK.

Rishi Sunak set out a plan to deliver the priorities of the British people by investing in stronger public services, levelling up opportunity, driving business growth and helping working families with the cost of living.

As part of the significant spending plans, Wales will receive an average of £18 billion per year in Barnett-based funding representing a 2.6% rise in the Welsh Government’s budget each year. The Welsh Government will now receive around £120 per person for every £100 per person of equivalent UK Government spending in England.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak said:

This is a budget for the whole of the UK. We’re focused on what matters most to the British people – the health of their loved ones, access to world-class public services, jobs for the future and tackling climate change.

An additional £2.5 billion per year in Barnett funding means the Welsh Government is well-funded to deliver all their devolved responsibilities while the people in Wales will also benefit from this Government’s commitment to levelling up opportunity and delivering for all parts of the UK.

We are continuing to boost industry and jobs and improve infrastructure and public services throughout Wales.

Secretary of State for Wales, Simon Hart said:

This is a fantastic budget for Wales, delivering significant investment directly to people, businesses and communities across the country.

The devolved administration in Wales will receive its largest-ever settlement so it can deliver its vital services like health, education and flood protection, while Wales will benefit fully from many of our UK-wide measures including freezes to fuel and alcohol duty, the increase in the minimum wage for thousands of workers and investment in parks and sports facilities.

Levelling up communities across the UK is top of our agenda. Investing more than £120m in 10 projects including the regeneration of Aberystwyth seafront and improving transport links in Rhondda shows how we will achieve this ambition across Wales.

Alongside the funding of a Welsh Veterans’ Commissioner, these measures and others in the Spending Review add up to an excellent package for Wales and its economy.

Targeted funding in Wales

On top of the record funding for the Welsh Government, Wales will benefit from the UK Government’s commitment to invest in people, jobs, communities and businesses.

Targeted projects in Wales include:

• Over £168 million to be invested in Wales to boost the post-pandemic recovery and enhance the Welsh economy, including:
• £121 million of the Levelling Up Fund in 10 projects, including the regeneration of Aberystwyth seafront an important dualling of the A4119 in South Wales and redevelopment of the Theatr Brycheiniog Arts Centre in Brecon.
• Over £460,000 of the Community Ownership Fund for three projects in Llandwrog, Pen-y-Waun, and Tredegar that are protecting valued community assets.
• Providing £0.9 billion for farmers and land managers and £6.2 million to support fisheries.
• A Veterans Commissioner for Wales, who will work to improve the lives and opportunities of the Welsh veterans’ community.
• Up to £50,000 to develop an early-stage proposal to reinstate a passenger rail services from Gaerwen to Amlwch on Anglesey.
• Accelerating £105m for the Cardiff City Region Deal to fast-track projects that range from innovation and Fintech, to manufacturing and infrastructure.
• Establishing a new trade and investment hub in Cardiff to grow trade for Wales.

UK-wide support

As a result of our strong United Kingdom, Wales will benefit from:

• A 50% cut in domestic Air Passenger Duty for flights between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and an additional £22.5 million of new funding in anticipation of the Union Connectivity Review recommendations where we will work with the devolved administrations on improving UK-wide connectivity.
• New funding for the British Business Bank to establish a £130 million fund in Wales, helping Welsh businesses to get the funding they need.
• The new £1.4 billion Global Britain Investment Fund which will support investment directly into Wales.
• A record £20 billion by 2024-25 in Research and Development supporting innovation in Wales.
• Confirmation that total funding will, at a minimum, match the size of EU Funds in Wales each year through the over £2.6bn UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which will invest in skills, people, businesses, and communities, including through ‘Multiply’, a new adult numeracy programme that will provide people across Wales with essential numeracy skills.
• £120 million for a new Future Nuclear Enabling Fund to support nuclear projects, with Wylfa in Anglesey, North Wales, as a potential site.
• Selection of the Hynet cluster as one of the first clusters under the Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) Infrastructure Fund, bringing investment to North Wales
• An increase to the National Minimum Wage of £9.50 an hour, with young people and apprentices also seeing increases.
• Freezes to fuel duty for the twelfth consecutive year, as well as a freeze on alcohol duty and a freeze on Vehicle Excise Duty for heavy goods vehicles.
• £140 million to provide revenue support for hydrogen production, including the Holyhead Hydrogen Hub, and heavy industrial firms across the UK who adopt carbon capture, utilisation and storage.

Every school and college in England will have more money to support young people’s recovery from the impact of the pandemic, as the government confirms billions of pounds of additional investment in education.

This will give schools and colleges the tools they need to help get pupils back on track – from raising teachers’ salaries, to recovery cash for schools, to increased learning time in colleges.

Schools will receive an additional £4.7 billion in core funding in 2024-25, including £1.6 billion in 2022-23 on top of already planned increases from the 2019 Spending Review, and meaning a total cash increase of £1,500 per pupil between 2019-20 and 2024-25.

This additional investment will also support the delivery of a £30,000 starting salary for all new teachers.

The funding sits alongside a further £1.8 billion dedicated to supporting young people to catch up on missed learning, following on from the existing investment in catch up for early years, schools and colleges, including for tutoring and teacher training opportunities.

The dedicated recovery investment includes a one-off £1 billion recovery premium to support disadvantaged pupils in all state-funded primary and secondary schools, while £800 million will be allocated across the period to ensure all 16-19 students will benefit from an additional 40 hours of education across the academic year – the equivalent of one additional hour a week in school or college.

The funding takes the government’s direct investment in education recovery to almost £5 billion, building on the high-quality tutoring for millions of pupils and world-class training for thousands of teachers and early years staff, already being provided.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said:

Our mission is to maximise the potential of every single young person, regardless of their background, circumstances or the ways in which the pandemic has affected them. This settlement is a landmark investment in our skills, schools and families. 

The pandemic has taken precious time in young people’s lives, including the vital learning they need to reach their potential. Today’s investment will enhance the recovery we know is already underway for young people, building on the real impact of the steps we’ve taken so far – whether that’s tutoring, world class teacher training or summer schools. We have been and we will continue to be ambitious about the futures of our children and young people.

This additional investment in recovery will mean every school and college will have extra dedicated funding to support those who most need help catching up.

Primary schools will continue to benefit from the same per pupil rate as this year’s recovery premium, while secondary schools are expected to receive nearly double that amount, meaning an average secondary school could attract around £70,000 a year. This extra support in secondary reflects evidence showing the greater gaps in older pupils’ learning and lower amount of time those pupils have left in education.

Schools will be able to use the funding in ways that best support their young people to catch up – from specialist small group support in reading and maths, to after-school provision or summer schools.

Students in 16-19 settings who have the least time left to recover learning lost will benefit from an additional 40 hours of education across the academic year, equivalent to an additional hour per week. This time will be used for extra teaching and learning – including in English, maths and other subjects – depending on students’ individual needs. This, alongside the 16-19 tuition fund, will help to prepare these students for their future.

These new catch up interventions follow on from the Chancellor’s recent announcement, bringing new skills investment for young people to £3.8 billion over the Parliament, and detailing £500 million to support families of young children. 

They also build on the recent £153 million announcement to strengthen teaching in the early years and address the impact of the pandemic on the youngest children, with a focus on the most disadvantaged areas of England, along with a commitment to investing over £200 million each year to continue the Holiday Activities and Food programme.

The dedicated education recovery funding will complement the significant expansion of the National Tutoring Programme, with millions of children set to benefit from high quality tutoring over the next 3 years, alongside world-class training for thousands of teachers and the summer schools that took place up and down the country through the school holidays.

• Inspectors found excessive amounts of sludge had been spread without notification
• Two other companies issued with Variable Monetary Penalties

The Environment Agency has accepted an Enforcement Undertaking (EU) from a company who spread excessive amounts of sewage sludge on land near Doncaster contrary to the Environmental Permitting (England & Wales) Regulations 2016.

The Environment Agency also issued variable monetary penalties (VMPs) totalling over £10,000 to 2 other companies for breaches of the Nitrate Pollution Prevention Regulation 2015.

The EU has been agreed after Sanderson Environmental Ltd were found to have breached conditions of their environmental permits for 2 fields at Highwood Farm, near Rossington, Doncaster. This follows an investigation which began in 2017.

The company, who operated on the land, have paid costs of £8,137.36 and have made a donation of £30,000 to the Land Trust, a registered charity which works to improve former coalfield sites across Yorkshire.

When officers from the Environment Agency inspected the farm to check compliance with environmental permits they found that excessive amounts of sludge had been imported.

They also found that spreading had occurred to land on a large scale without notification to the Environment Agency. Enquiries revealed that the sewage sludge had not been treated prior to spreading.

When challenged by Environment Agency officers the company eventually stopped operating and all remaining stockpiled sewage sludge was removed. A crop of contaminated peas planted in error by the landowners was destroyed.

Two companies who own the fields in question were issued with VMPs for breaches of the Nitrate Pollution Prevention Regulation 2015.

Sutcliffe Farmers Limited paid £7,521.54 and Senviro Limited paid £2,507.73, with each also paying costs of £8,137.63. A VMP is a proportionate monetary penalty for the more serious cases of non-compliance.

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said:

We take our responsibility to protect the environment very seriously. Where there is evidence, the Environment Agency uses a full range of enforcement options.

Enforcement Undertakings allow businesses who fail to comply with legal requirements or pollute the environment to come into compliance.

The Environment Agency is increasingly using this method of enforcement where there is opportunity to restore and improve the environment, change behaviour and improve practices of the offender.

We rely on communities to report pollution and environmental issues to us, and urge people to report issues to us on our 24 hour incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60.

Euan Hall, the chief executive for The Land Trust, said:

This award has made a huge difference to the sites on our South Yorkshire portfolio.

We have already been able to deliver a number of projects which have been of huge benefit to the communities that live and work around our sites.

We are very pleased to have been able to help the Environment Agency undo some of the damage that had been done and make improvements that will benefit the local area for the long-term.

Notes to editor

What is an enforcement undertaking (EU)?

An EU is available to the Environment Agency as an alternative sanction to prosecution or monetary penalty for dealing with certain environmental offences.

It is a legally-binding voluntary agreement proposed by a business (or an individual) when the EA has reasonable grounds to suspect that an environmental offence has occurred.

EUs for environmental offences were introduced under the Environmental Civil Sanctions (England) Order 2010 and the Environmental Civil Sanctions (Miscellaneous Amendments) (England) Regulations 2010.

Why use enforcement undertakings?

• businesses will voluntarily secure compliance now and in the future, without attracting a criminal record
• the environment, local community and those directly impacted by the offending can benefit through actions being offered in an EU
• they allow us to deal with the less intentional and polluting offending in a more proportionate way than prosecution through the criminal courts
• EUs go beyond the bare minimum needed for a business to comply, as shown in the list of accepted EUs we publish on our website

How can businesses benefit from enforcement undertakings instead of prosecution?

Accepting an EU is always at the discretion of the EA. But if accepted replaces the need for an alternative sanction, such as prosecution or monetary penalty.

The EA has produced guidance and standard forms to help those wishing to make offers.

However, we expect responsible businesses to co-operate and seek our advice at an early stage, as we are more likely to accept EUs which have been offered early or proactively.

When offering an EU, businesses must accept responsibility for the offending.

They must also include actions which will stop offending, ensure future compliance and protect any harm/damage.

They must also make a financial contribution towards a suitable environmental project.

What is a variable monetary penalty (VMP)?

A VMP is a proportionate monetary penalty for the more serious cases of non-compliance.

How much is a VMP?

The maximum amount for any VMP is £250,000 for each offence.  The exact amount is calculated using the methodology in Annex 1 of our Enforcement and Sanctions Policy.

When can VMPs be used?

A VMP can be used in the following situations:

• when there is evidence of negligence or mismanagement
• when there is an environmental impact
• to remove an identifiable financial gain or saving as a result of the breach
• where it is not in the public interest to prosecute

What happens to the money once the VMP has been paid?

The money is transferred to Her Majesty’s Treasury – the Environment Agency does not keep the money to fund its own activities or have a say in how the money is used.  The Environment Agency is however, able to recover its costs, using an Enforcement Cost Recovery Notice.

• UK Government will provide a record £41 billion per year to the Scottish Government.
• Scotland will also benefit from UK-wide support for people and businesses, green jobs and investment to level up opportunities.
• Targeted funding will support local projects across Scotland, including road and infrastructure improvements, investment in local communities and funding for businesses.

The Chancellor today announced Barnett-based funding for the Scottish Government of £41 billion per year – delivering the largest annual funding settlement, in real terms, since devolution over 20 years ago. This includes a £4.6 billion per year spending boost – as part of a Budget and Spending Review that delivers a stronger economy for the whole of the UK.

Rishi Sunak set out a plan to deliver the priorities of the British people by investing in stronger public services, levelling up opportunity, driving business growth and helping working families with the cost of living.

As part of the significant spending plans, Scotland will receive an average of £41 billion per year in Barnett-based funding representing a 2.4% rise in the Scottish Government’s budget each year. The Scottish Government will now receive around £126 per person for every £100 per person of equivalent UK Government spending in England.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak said:

This is a budget for the whole of the UK. We’re focused on what matters most to the British people – the health of their loved ones, access to world-class public services, jobs for the future and tackling climate change.

By providing record funding, the Scottish Government can tackle backlogs in the NHS and ensure people in Scotland get the support they need as we recover from the pandemic.

The UK Government continues to level up opportunities across all parts of the UK, with investments in green jobs and high-speed internet access for thousands more homes in Scotland through Project Gigabit.

Scottish Secretary, Alister Jack said:

The Budget delivers for people in Scotland, and right across the UK.

The Scottish Government’s block grant, boosted by an additional £4.6 billion a year due to spending in England, means that the funding for the Scottish Government is the highest it has ever been.

It demonstrates our commitment to level up right across the UK. The Budget ushers in an era of real devolution, ensuring money is spent on projects that matter most to people in Scotland. The UK Government made a clear commitment to maintain Scotland’s level of funding following the vote to leave the EU, and we have delivered on that promise. We are taking decisions in the UK rather than in Brussels and dealing directly with local authorities who know their communities best.

From the Knoydart community pub, to Dumbarton town centre and the Granton Gasworks – all these projects will bring real, visible improvements for local communities. Special funding for Glasgow’s iconic Burrell Collection and Extreme E will help drive economic growth and jobs on the back of culture and tourism.

The continuation of the freeze on spirit duty will be a boost to Scotland’s thriving whisky industry.

Over the past 18 months the UK Government has been focused on protecting people’s livelihoods, their incomes, and their jobs. We now need to look to the future, to build a stronger economy for people in all parts of the UK.

Targeted funding in Scotland

On top of the record funding for the Scottish Government, Scotland will benefit from the UK Government’s commitment to invest in people, jobs, communities and businesses.

Targeted projects in Scotland include:

• Over £200 million to be invested in Scotland to boost the post-pandemic recovery and enhance the Scottish economy. This will include £172 million of the Levelling Up Fund for 8 important projects including the redevelopment of Inverness Castle, the much-needed renovation of the Westfield Roundabout in Falkirk, and a new marketplace in Aberdeen City Centre, as well as over £1.07 million of the Community Ownership Fund for five projects in Whithorn, Inverie, New Galloway, Kinloch Rannoch and Callander that are protecting valued community assets.

• Providing £1.9 billion for farmers and land managers and £42.2 million to support fisheries. Up to £1 million, to support the delivery of a ‘green’ formula E race showcasing Hebridean Green Hydrogen to a global audience.
• Expanding the existing trade and investment hub in Edinburgh to grow trade for Scotland.
• Up to £3 million to bring world-class art exhibitions to the Burrell Collection in the heart of Glasgow.

UK-wide support

As a result of our strong United Kingdom, Scotland will benefit from:

• A 50% cut in domestic Air Passenger Duty for flights between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and an additional £22.5 million of new funding in anticipation of the Union Connectivity Review recommendations where we will work with the devolved administrations on improving UK-wide connectivity.
• New funding for the British Business Bank to establish a £150 million fund in Scotland, helping Scottish businesses to get the financing they need.
• The new £1.4 billion Global Britain Investment Fund which will support investment directly into Scotland.
• A record £20 billion by 2024-25 in Research and Development supporting innovation in Scotland.
• Confirmation that total funding will at a minimum match the size of EU Funds in Scotland, each year through the over £2.6bn UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which will invest in skills, people, businesses, and communities, including through ‘Multiply’, a new adult numeracy programme that will provide people across Scotland with essential numeracy skills.
• An increase to the National Minimum Wage of £9.50 an hour, with young people and apprentices also seeing increases.
• Freezes to fuel duty for the twelfth consecutive year and a freeze on Vehicle Excise Duty for heavy goods vehicles.
• A freeze on alcohol duty, which will mean that whisky benefits from the lowest real terms tax rate since 1918.