Meeting of the Parliament 09 October 2024
The Parliament has the most generous block grant in the history of devolution. The block grant has nearly doubled in real terms since the Parliament was established. As I pointed out to Ross Greer, per head of population, we have 20 per cent more to spend than is the equivalent across the UK. The Parliament has vast resources. The questions that Ross Greer should be asking are: why is that money not being properly spent, and why is so much of that money being wasted, given that the outcomes here are poorer than in other parts of the UK?
The Parliament has power over non-savings, non-dividend income tax and can change bands and rates completely. It has power over land and buildings transaction tax, aggregates tax, non-domestic rates and council tax. It even has the power to create new taxes. It is therefore nonsensical to say that the powers do not exist. We criticise the Scottish Government for using them to make the wrong choices. A case in point is the national care service, which our amendment refers to. Money is being wasted on bureaucracy that should instead be spent on front-line services.
We have seen years of economic and fiscal mismanagement by the SNP in government—propped up by the Greens in government for a number of years—which has led to £2.7 billion of taxpayers’ money being wasted over this parliamentary session.