Meeting of the Parliament 06 December 2023
Mr Swinney made exactly those points when he was finance secretary. He is not just talking about the current autumn statement. Mr Swinney would have been making those points about previous budgets. It is a constitutional point, because he fundamentally disagrees with the arrangements about how Scotland receives its money. That is the constitutional difference. It is not just this autumn statement that he has objected to, but previous ones, and he has made his point very strongly in the chamber.
The Deputy First Minister was right when she said that any fiscal framework requires serious negotiation and an understanding from both Governments that compromise will be necessary, and that is very much what we got. I am sure that local government would like that same process of mutual engagement and understanding when it comes to the Verity house agreement, which took such a knock two months ago when the council tax freeze was announced without any consultation. That point is very well made by the Liberal Democrat amendment.
The debate about the principles of the Smith commission, particularly when it comes to the no-detriment clause, matters. It is a very technical argument, but it matters. I am glad that the Deputy First Minister thinks that that might be worthy of debate, because it is very difficult, as was evidenced by the independent report by David Eiser, David Phillips and David Bell, who made it very clear that, although all those principles have very good intentions, it is exceptionally difficult, if not impossible, to ensure that they are all followed at the same time. Given the time that has elapsed, should we think about whether we have to update the Smith commission? I think that the Finance and Public Administration Committee is interested in that.