Meeting of the Parliament 27 November 2025
That is £820 million secured by Anas Sarwar for Scotland, which we hope to see spent properly and not wasted on things such as, potentially, a £350 million bill if we do not fix this mistake.
I disagree fundamentally with the Scottish Conservatives’ contention that it is not the role of Opposition parties to correct Government mistakes. We take our responsibilities as elected members seriously; we are here to serve the people of Scotland. It is the people of Scotland who stand to lose hundreds of millions of pounds because the Government has failed to check its own work, so it is absolutely our duty to intervene.
We have listened carefully to the Government’s explanation of the procedural circumstances that led to this situation. In due course, there will be time for the Government to account for what went wrong, how it went wrong and why such an error was allowed to persist unnoticed. It may well be appropriate—or, I would say, necessary—for the Government to offer an apology to the Parliament and to the country for its failure to identify the issue sooner. In the months ahead, there will be ample opportunity to scrutinise the wider catalogue of errors and mismanagement that has accumulated over 18 years of SNP administration: missed amendments, wasted millions and repeated failures in governance.
However, today, our responsibility is clear. It is to prevent an unnecessary and harmful cut to Scotland’s public finances or a corresponding increase in tax. We acknowledge that, like all legislation, this bill may be open to legal challenge, but the risk of challenge is substantially outweighed by the immediate and pressing risk of a £350 million refund.
Although we support the bill, we cannot accept the circumstances that necessitated its introduction. The Government must reflect on how many more critical errors the Parliament will be required to fix before it accepts that it has reached the end of the road. I would ask the Government not to place the Parliament in this position again, but experience suggests that that might be in vain. If the Government cannot competently manage its own financial and legislative responsibilities, it should step aside for those who can, before lasting damage is done.