Meeting of the Parliament 26 March 2014
I will give way to him in my closing speech if he cares to trouble me.
The Scottish Government is out by at least £2 billion for the financial year that we are about to finish. It was out by at least £1 billion last year, but it claims that the figures that it has outlined are robust. That is why we are calling on the Scottish Government to publish updated oil and gas figures.
This week, the Scottish Government told the Financial Times that it had
“never committed to regular updates of the forecasts”,
but the “Oil and Gas Analytical Bulletin” says:
“This is the first in a series of bulletins summarising recent trends in the Scottish oil and gas industry. Further updates will be published in due course.”
In the ordinary meaning of words, the Scottish Government said that it would update the forecasts. That is why we are calling on it to update us on the fiscal position for 2016-17 and to publish the figures for the years after that.
I move,
That the Parliament expresses concern regarding the lack of financial detail in the Scottish Government’s white paper on independence; notes that it has projected budget figures only for a single year, namely 2016-17; further notes that a number of independent experts predict a weaker fiscal position than the Scottish Government, including the recent report by the Centre for Public Policy for Regions; is concerned about the tighter fiscal challenges faced by an independent Scotland in the longer term, as outlined by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and calls on the Scottish Government to publish updated oil revenue forecasts and an updated fiscal forecast for 2016-17 as well as its fiscal forecasts for the years post 2016-17.
14:55