Meeting of the Parliament 29 October 2024
Those Administrations did not have to make emergency adjustments of the scale of those that the Scottish Government has had to make. That also flies in the face of the facts that the Scottish Government has had more generous allocations because of the Barnett formula and that the total funding this year is £52.5 billion compared with £50.2 billion in 2020, which is a significant and substantial increase. Part of what the Government needs to do is bake the right assumptions into its financial plans at the start of the financial year. It is not a question of constantly pointing the finger at UK Governments.
We need a clear and unflinching view of the challenges, not one that simply seeks to blame mechanisms. Ultimately, it is a matter of making policy that is sustainable within the fiscal envelope that we know we have. We also need a commitment on reform of our public services—because we will need to reform them to meet the challenges—and a commitment to sustainability. Above all else, we need a commitment to and a focus on growing jobs and wages, because that is the route to financial sustainability for this country.
I move amendment S6M-15048.1, to leave out from “, and agrees” to end and insert:
“; notes the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s Fiscal Sustainability Report and the specific challenges that Scotland will face in the next 50 years, including those posed by an ageing population, and required health spending forecast to increase from 35% to 50% of devolved spending, and calls on the Scottish Government to set out an approach to deal with the long-term fiscal challenges presented by demographic, climate and technological change.”
15:30Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.