What is the Minister's assessment of the implications of the £1.5m released funding from the police community support officer budgets?
Following months of intensive cross-government work, the Welsh Government has developed a prudent plan to respond to the extraordinary financial pressures facing public services. Speaking in the Senedd on 17 October the Finance Minister Rebecca Evans set out that the priority for this government is to protect core services, jobs, and people hardest hit by the current cost of living crisis. She announced a package of changes to spending plans. Every ministerial portfolio was asked to make a contribution to meet the extraordinary financial pressures. Ministers have re-prioritised spending and activities as much as possible, rather than cutting programmes as a whole.
This has included releasing up to £1.5m from the Police Community Support Officers budget, which has arisen through requesting that the four Welsh police forces and British Transport Police pause recruitment of Welsh Government-funded PCSOs. We are working closely with policing in Wales to monitor the impacts of a recruitment pause.