Quote Originally Posted by JamesWales View Post
They can essentially allocate things as they see fit. There are statutory obligations that govts (mainly through councils) have to provide, such as waste collection, education etc so you couldn't cut all funding but within reasonable parameters the Welsh Govt is fit to allocate resources as they see fit.

That's why when the UK govt announces extra funding on some specific health initiative for example, they give a chunk of money to the devolved govts but it doesn't have to be spent on the same thing.
There was a lot of finger pointing and stamping of tiny feet on here a few months back when it was ‘revealed’ that the WAG hadn’t used its full NHS funding allocation (under the formula at the time) on the NHS. They had moved some of their health budget into adult social care - to help join up the services and get better value and outcomes from the money available to them. On the face of it that was smart and sensible - but denounced by government ministers on weekend politics talk shows and by the army of Tory cheerleaders on CCMB.

So yes - there is some discretion on how London determined funding is used.