From the record: Cuts

From the Assembly's Record of Proceedings, 20th January 2010, questions to Jane hutt, minister for Business and Budget

Leanne Wood: I have recently been in contact with the chancellor of the University of Glamorgan, who has expressed concerns about funding. We are aware that it has had to make efficiency savings in this year’s budget, and I have been informed that the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales has asked it to identify savings of a further 10 per cent for the financial year 2011-12. There are fears that staff could be made redundant if cuts of this magnitude go ahead.

Furthermore, I met with representatives of the National Probation Service recently and there is to be a potential 20 per cent cut in the probation service’s budget over the next three years. Although I accept that the probation service is not a devolved matter, this cut will have an impact on many people in our communities in Wales. Rather than risk reducing such vital services to breaking point, will you agree to make the case as forcefully as possible to the Chancellor for the scrapping of Trident and identity cards, because they are socially useless and expensive projects that the public sector cannot afford at this time?