Meeting of the Parliament 05 June 2024
I have spent quite a lot of this morning reading up on the EU rules on this, and I understand what is being asked for, but I remind the Deputy First Minister that the Scottish Government has already handed back €199 million. I am asking for clarity and that is what the rest of the Parliament is asking for. If the Deputy First Minister is saying that the £450 million figure is inaccurate, she must have some idea of what the actual figure is. The Parliament ought to know what that money is and what it has been earmarked for.
I am asking for a statement so that we can be provided with further information and can scrutinise what the Scottish Government is saying on the matter. To come back to the point that I made yesterday, if money has been available, we ought to know about it and we ought to be able to tell local government and all the people who have been involved, for example, in enterprise budgets, exactly where that money is. If we are not doing that, we are not being transparent or ensuring that this Parliament is looking after the public.
I move amendment S6M-13493.1, to leave out from third “followed by Business Motions” to second “5.00 pm Decision Time” and insert—
“followed by Ministerial Statement: Allocation of EU Structural Funds
followed by Business Motions
followed by Parliamentary Bureau Motions
5.30 pm Decision Time”.
17:44Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.