English: I welcome this opportunity to speak in this Finance Committee debate on the Welsh Government's spending priorities for 2023-24, and drawing on the committee's experience of its first ever budget scrutiny on the 2022-23 draft budget. The reason I'm speaking is very focused on the issue of justice, but I would say just in passing that it's great to hear the contributions already in terms of the way that young people and children have influenced and shaped, with their voices being heard within this Chamber already. We decided as a committee, particularly with the addition of justice to our remit, that this was going to be a regular feature of our work programme. So, we do look forward in line with that to be contributing to the scrutiny of future Welsh Government budgets. On the matter of justice, we took great interest in the Welsh Government's proposals for spending in this area during our scrutiny of the draft budget for 2022-23. We have also, of course, more recently seen the Welsh Government publish its work programme, 'Delivering Justice for Wales', which includes its plans across a great breadth of areas, including criminal justice, family justice, access to justice, the legal sector and civil and administrative justice. So, we are looking forward to seeing how this programme progresses, and, indeed, the Welsh Government has now committed on a number of occasions to regularly report on its progress to our committee and to the Senedd. This is an area of real interest to our stakeholders as well, as we found when we engaged with legal practitioners and litigants in person earlier this year on the question of access to justice. Some participants in that engagement activity were keen to acknowledge the investment that has been made by the Welsh Government in things such as social welfare advice, following the implementation of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, but they said that further support was going to be needed to meet the demand that is out there. So, to help us and our stakeholders and this Senedd, indeed, understand how much of the Welsh Government's budget goes towards spending on justice and where that spending goes, we have called for that spending to be disaggregated in the future. And we thank the Counsel General for telling us that the Welsh Government will now indeed explore the ways that it can improve the level of information it provides about justice expenditure, so we look forward to seeing the outcome of that. I don't know whether it's too early at this stage for the Minister to actually give us any update. I suspect it's ongoing. But thank you to the Chair of the Finance Committee for organising this important debate today, and we look forward to working with you and other Senedd committees as we scrutinise the Welsh Government's spending proposals this year and going ahead.
Welsh: Rwy'n croesawu'r cyfle hwn i siarad yn nadl y Pwyllgor Cyllid ar flaenoriaethau gwariant Llywodraeth Cymru ar gyfer 2023-24, a hynny gan dynnu ar brofiad y pwyllgor o'i waith craffu cyllidebol cyntaf erioed ar gyllideb ddrafft 2022-23. Y rheswm pam rwy'n siarad yw er mwyn canolbwyntio ar fater cyfiawnder, ond hoffwn ddweud wrth fynd heibio ei bod yn wych clywed y cyfraniadau sydd wedi bod eisoes o ran y ffordd y mae pobl ifanc a phlant wedi dylanwadu a siapio, gyda'u lleisiau'n cael eu clywed yn y Siambr hon eisoes. Penderfynasom fel pwyllgor, yn enwedig gydag ychwanegu cyfiawnder at ein cylch gwaith, y byddai hon yn nodwedd reolaidd o'n rhaglen waith. Felly, edrychwn ymlaen yn unol â hynny at gyfrannu at y gwaith o graffu ar gyllidebau Llywodraeth Cymru yn y dyfodol. Ar fater cyfiawnder, roedd gennym ddiddordeb mawr yng nghynigion Llywodraeth Cymru ar gyfer gwariant yn y maes hwn wrth inni graffu ar y gyllideb ddrafft ar gyfer 2022-23. Yn fwy diweddar hefyd wrth gwrs, rydym wedi gweld Llywodraeth Cymru yn cyhoeddi ei rhaglen waith, 'Sicrhau Cyfiawnder i Gymru', sy'n cynnwys ei chynlluniau mewn ystod eang o feysydd, gan gynnwys cyfiawnder troseddol, cyfiawnder teuluol, mynediad at gyfiawnder, y sector cyfreithiol a chyfiawnder sifil a gweinyddol. Felly, rydym yn edrych ymlaen at weld sut y bydd y rhaglen hon yn datblygu, ac yn wir, mae Llywodraeth Cymru bellach wedi ymrwymo droeon i adrodd yn rheolaidd ar ei chynnydd i'n pwyllgor ac i'r Senedd. Mae hwn yn faes sydd o ddiddordeb gwirioneddol i'n rhanddeiliaid hefyd, fel y gwelsom pan wnaethom ymgysylltu ag ymarferwyr cyfreithiol a chyfreithwyr yn bersonol yn gynharach eleni ar fater mynediad at gyfiawnder. Roedd rhai a gymerodd ran yn y gweithgarwch ymgysylltu hwnnw'n awyddus i gydnabod y buddsoddiad a wnaed gan Lywodraeth Cymru mewn pethau fel cyngor lles cymdeithasol, yn dilyn gweithredu Deddf Cymorth Cyfreithiol, Dedfrydu a Chosbi Troseddwyr 2012, ond roeddent yn dweud y byddai angen cymorth pellach i ateb y galw. Felly, er mwyn ein helpu ni a'n rhanddeiliaid a'r Senedd hon, yn wir, i ddeall faint o gyllideb Llywodraeth Cymru sy'n mynd tuag at wariant ar gyfiawnder ac i lle mae'r gwariant hwnnw'n mynd, rydym wedi galw am ddadgyfuno'r gwariant hwnnw yn y dyfodol. A diolchwn i'r Cwnsler Cyffredinol am ddweud wrthym y bydd Llywodraeth Cymru yn awr yn archwilio'r ffyrdd y gall wella lefel yr wybodaeth y mae'n ei darparu am wariant cyfiawnder, felly edrychwn ymlaen at weld canlyniad hynny. Nid wyf yn gwybod a yw'n rhy gynnar i'r Gweinidog roi unrhyw ddiweddariad i ni ar y cam hwn. Rwy'n tybio bod hynny'n dal ar y gweill. Ond diolch i Gadeirydd y Pwyllgor Cyllid am drefnu'r ddadl bwysig hon heddiw, ac edrychwn ymlaen at weithio gyda chi a phwyllgorau eraill y Senedd wrth inni graffu ar gynigion gwariant Llywodraeth Cymru eleni ac yn y dyfodol.