In the context of the Welsh Government’s draft budget for 2024-25, the Auditor General identifies themes that the work of Audit Wales suggests would help public organisations achieve more value from the money they already spend, including:

• Reducing cost and damage to public confidence from failures in governance and financial management;
• Minimising loss to fraud and error;
• Ensuring that our complex public service landscape delivers value for money;
• Addressing long-term workforce issues across many sectors and professions;
• Accelerating the use of digital technology to drive service transformation and efficiencies, and tackling digital exclusion;
• Shifting resources towards prevention to avoid higher costs in the future, and
• Rigorously appraising decisions for value for money backed up by effective monitoring and evaluation of outcomes.

The Welsh Government’s draft 2024-25 budget allocates £26.4 billion, up from £25.2 billion in 2023-24.

In real-terms, day-to-day revenue funding is 0.4 per cent higher than this financial year. The capital budget is 1.7 per cent higher. The NHS is the largest single area of spend, accounting for more than half of the revenue budget.

The budget follows a period in which high inflation has eroded the Welsh Government’s spending power and there has been increasing pressure on frontline services, including pent up demand from the pandemic and widening inequality.

These pressures are being felt right across the public sector, with the long-term sustainability and affordability of current services and policy commitments being tested.

Adrian Crompton, Auditor General for Wales, said:

“Tackling long-term issues such as inequality, demographic change and net zero is enormously challenging when purse-strings are so tight. But it must be done if public services are to escape from a spiral of short-term firefighting.

"Our work repeatedly identifies themes that, if addressed, can help the Welsh Government and public bodies get greater value from the more than £26 billion they spend, and build the public trust needed to underpin long-term, sustainable change.”

Notes:

• This commentary references spending plans set out in the Welsh Government's draft 2024-25 budget which have been the subject of scrutiny and reporting by Welsh Parliament Committees [Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25 (senedd.wales)]. The Welsh Government will publish its final budget shortly. It has already announced that the final budget will include an additional £25 million allocation for local government, as a consequence of the UK Government’s decision to increase its local government settlement for England [Written Statement: Additional Funding for Local Government 2024-25 (7 February 2024) | GOV.WALES].
• The Auditor General is the independent statutory external auditor of the devolved Welsh public sector. He is responsible for the annual audit of the majority of the public money spent in Wales.
• The audit independence of the Auditor General is of paramount importance. He was appointed by the Queen, and his audit work is not subject to direction or control by the Welsh Parliament or government. 
• The Wales Audit Office (WAO) is a corporate body consisting of a nine member statutory Board which employs staff and provides other resources to the Auditor General, who is also the Board’s Chief Executive and Accounting Officer. The Board monitors and advises the Auditor General, regarding the exercise of his functions.
• Audit Wales is the umbrella name used to describe the Auditor General for Wales and the Wales Audit Office, which are separate legal entities with their own legal functions.