Meeting of the Parliament 27 November 2025
I will support the bill, because I recognise the importance of correcting the error that has arisen and the seriousness of the potential consequences if Parliament fails to act.
The bill is, in essence, a targeted intervention to rectify a specific legislative error, which is small in appearance but profound in financial consequence. The mistake, frankly, should never have occurred, but had it not been identified—seemingly by a quirk of fate—it could have resulted in the people of Scotland being left with a liability of approximately £350 million. To put that into perspective, £350 million is almost half of the £820 million that, according to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was secured by Anas Sarwar for Scotland from the United Kingdom Government this week. [Interruption.] We might be hearing chuckles and laughs, but that is not a trivial sum. It represents resources that could and should be supporting public services, not cleaning up a Government mess.