Welsh Government announces spending cuts in emergency budget statement

The Welsh Government's finance minister has today taken the unprecedented step of amending its budget partway through the financial year. Rebecca Evans has told the Senedd all departments except health and climate change have had to provide savings.

In the summer, First Minister Mark Drakeford said his government had a £900m gap in its budget and he had told every minister to find savings in their department. You can read his comments from August here. Those decisions have been ongoing and today is the first time the results will be made public. Overnight, the Welsh Government said public services, NHS and transport were all safe and it said it had "protected people from the worst of the financial crisis".

The Welsh Government has found money via taking £100m extra from reserves; an expectation there will be £150m in Barnett consequentials as a result of decisions taken in England, a proposed transfer of £147m from capital to revenue budgets, if the UK Treasury allows; and cuts within departments.

Schools budgets have however been hit with a £40m cut to its capital spending budget and there are cuts to all departments except for health and climate change. Funding for health has had to go up £425m because of the huge pressures health boards are facing, Transport for Wales gets an extra £125m and the revenue support grant which funds councils has been protected, the Senedd has been told.

The cuts by department:

Education: Revenue down £74.4m, capital down £40m

Finance and local government: Revenue down £28.5m, capital down less than £10m

Economy: Revenue down £28.6m, capital down £36.5m

Rural affairs: Revenue down £17.3m, capital down £20.2m

Social justice: Revenue down £7m, capital down less than £10m

Running costs for Welsh