Hansard

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

16 Mar 2011

Local Government Finance (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Order 2011

The member made a point about the council tax freeze having been underfunded consistently since its introduction, and the Labour Party is committed not only to freezing the council tax but to funding it fully. By how much will the council tax freeze have to be funded in order ...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

16 Mar 2011

Local Government Finance (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Order 2011

Will the member take an intervention?

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

16 Mar 2011

Local Government Finance (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Order 2011

Will the member take an intervention?

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

16 Mar 2011

Local Government Finance (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Order 2011

If I remember correctly, the Liberal Democrats were committed to a local income tax, but Ross Finnie has said that they would not introduce it in the next five years. We would reduce pensioners’ council tax bills by £200. I appreciate that that is a different formulation from ...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

16 Mar 2011

Local Government Finance (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Order 2011

Oh—it is underfunded, which I presume is why, in 2009, Mr McMahon said:“The SNP Government is ripping off local councils by £270 million.”Are we to take it that the Labour Party proposal now is that the council tax freeze will be fully funded if it gets £270 million per year e...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

16 Mar 2011

Local Government Finance (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Order 2011

I am glad that someone on the Labour benches has finally admitted that the recession happened on that party’s watch, because Labour members have been keen to deny that in previous years. Michael McMahon tells us that the Labour Party has been keen on the council tax freeze, wh...

Derek Brownlee (South of Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

16 Mar 2011

Local Government Finance (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Order 2011

That is a terrifying prospect.Given that we vote in the budget debate in February, I always wondered why we regularly come back to consider such orders. I appreciate that there is the technicality of voting to give additional money to councils around the council tax freeze, bu...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

09 Mar 2011

“Report on preventative spending”

Ross Finnie raised an important point about the outcome basis. Although there has been a shift in rhetoric in Parliament about moving towards an outcome basis, that has not been matched by a shift in everyone’s point of view on how we deal with it. Too often, we still equate s...

Derek Brownlee (South of Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

09 Mar 2011

“Report on preventative spending”

I thank the committee clerks, and the witnesses who gave evidence to the inquiry. I also thank Andrew Welsh for his time as convener of the Finance Committee. The inquiry on preventative spending was perhaps one of his easier tasks and I know that he feels strongly that it is ...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

03 Mar 2011

Scottish Executive Question Time · Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005

Can we take it from that answer that in the event that the current Scottish Government was to be re-elected, there would be no movement in relation to licence fees for premises until the conclusion of that review at the earliest?

Derek Brownlee (South of Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

03 Mar 2011

Scottish Executive Question Time · Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005

5. To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review the operation of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005. (S3O-13116)

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

01 Mar 2011

Subordinate Legislation

I will chance one final question. How do you ascertain whether advertising is spent on social media, rather than on the more traditional media? Is some assessment of value for money carried out within the Government?

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

01 Mar 2011

Subordinate Legislation

Is that in effect additional advertising spend, or is it reclassification in that advertising money in portfolios is now being classified centrally?

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

01 Mar 2011

Subordinate Legislation

It would be helpful because I do not want to dwell on the issue too much. However, I would be particularly concerned if we were relying on receipts that were a consequence of the current economic circumstances and that might not occur in the future.I have a question on another...

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

01 Mar 2011

Subordinate Legislation

I have a couple of questions about the detail of the revision. A significant underspend has been redeployed, which is not significant for the revision but for the budget for the Accountant in Bankruptcy. If memory serves me correctly, the Accountant in Bankruptcy previously ha...

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

01 Mar 2011

Subordinate Legislation

We have had a relatively explicit statement from the chief secretary, who was pretty clear about the situation, although he also said that the position on EYF was not settled. If it turns out that what we were told is not what actually happens, that would rather negate the poi...

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

01 Mar 2011

Subordinate Legislation

It might be quite helpful if you could.

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

01 Mar 2011

Subordinate Legislation

This might be difficult for you to answer but, in that dialogue, do you think that Treasury officials are aware of what the Chief Secretary to the Treasury told the Finance Committee?

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

01 Mar 2011

Subordinate Legislation

So, your understanding is not based on what the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has told the Finance Committee but on something else.

Derek Brownlee (South of Scotland) (Con) Con Committee

01 Mar 2011

Subordinate Legislation

I was reading the Official Report of the evidence that we heard on 25 November from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury around the changes to what was EYF. He said that the Scottish Parliament would be “treated differently” from Whitehall departments and talked about two addit...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

24 Feb 2011

Regeneration

I have the statistics from the National Coal Board Scottish area: 52 pits closed under Wilson and Callaghan, which is more than four times the number that closed under Thatcher. Should Johann Lamont not be a little more contrite about the impact that the Labour Party in govern...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

24 Feb 2011

Regeneration

I am always keen for the Scottish Government and the UK Government to work well together. I cannot add anything to what Alex Johnstone said, which is that the Coalfields Regeneration Trust in England has said that it will not be in a position to make any announcement on its fu...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

24 Feb 2011

Regeneration

Yes, there are issues about depopulation, but if we look at any time during Scotland’s economic history we will find that the population shifted as new opportunities became available in different parts of the country. We cannot expect the Government to end that practice. I app...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

24 Feb 2011

Regeneration

It might well have been in Labour’s manifesto, but it did not vote for the initiative when it had the opportunity to do so in Parliament. Labour will presumably be judged by what it does, not what it promises. We all know that a promise from the Labour Party is not worth a gre...

Derek Brownlee (South of Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

24 Feb 2011

Regeneration

This morning, we have heard a broad range of activities being classed as regeneration activities. Perhaps one of the issues that we face is the fact that regeneration means different things to different people. Obviously it means the regeneration of the physical infrastructure...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

09 Feb 2011

Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 3

I think the member forgot to say that they also wrecked the public finances.

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

09 Feb 2011

Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 3

It is obvious that the art of co-operation learned by the Liberal Democrats in supporting and working with us at Westminster has rubbed off at Holyrood, and I welcome that. The budget is a compromise, and it is the better for it. It is obvious that it is not a Labour budget, b...

Derek Brownlee (South of Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

09 Feb 2011

Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 3

Mr Kerr was right in one respect: that was certainly a vision, although perhaps not quite the vision that he wants to portray to the Scottish people.The budget is not a Conservative budget. Members will have to wait until 23 March for a Conservative budget, although that will,...

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

01 Feb 2011

Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 2

The Government is still committed to funding an additional capital contribution to Scottish Water of at least another £560 million over the period to 2015.

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

01 Feb 2011

Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 2

But the indicative figures that you produced last week had a breakdown that—I think—showed a receipt for Scottish Water of only £88 million or £89 million per year and did not show any capital supply to Scottish Water.

Derek Brownlee (South of Scotland) (Con) Con Committee

01 Feb 2011

Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 2

It is perhaps unfair to take advantage of the absence of the Liberal Democrats, who cannot therefore defend their spending decisions. However, more substantively, the draft budget refers to the Scottish Water figure of £700 million over the determination period, but the indica...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

26 Jan 2011

Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 1

I am assuming from that that the cabinet secretary is not denying that, on the most recent available figures, there is still a surplus of £89 million. None of the detail about publishing figures annually after the year end in any way undermines the case for publishing figures ...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

26 Jan 2011

Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 1

I will simply make one further point, which concerns the comments that Margo MacDonald made on the UK Government’s renegotiation of public spending contracts. It is an excellent suggestion, which I hope the Scottish Government will follow as well.17:21

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

26 Jan 2011

Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 1

The fundamental point about the welfare state is what services are provided, rather than who provides them. Of course, in Scotland the health service is not being opened up to the private sector. Nothing in the budget seeks to do that.If we look at the figures in the Governmen...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

26 Jan 2011

Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 1

Mr Gibson is concerned about fuel duty. Many SNP members have told us what is wrong with the UK Government’s spending and tax decisions, but they have not said what cuts they think would not be too far and too fast. Mr Gibson criticised us for standing in the way of Scotland b...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

26 Jan 2011

Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 1

A bigger problem, which I would have thought the member would understand, because she is an advocate of greater fiscal powers, is that the SNP has just given all those businesses a perfect example that might give credence to their arguments. It would have been much better if t...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

26 Jan 2011

Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 1

The debate has rather suffered by its proximity to the Scottish Parliament elections, but there is little that we can do about that.A wide range of subjects has been discussed. SNP members put about quite a lot of smoke and mirrors on the retail levy. They told us that only 0....

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

26 Jan 2011

Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 1

I accept that the illustrative figures show a cash freeze. What I am saying is that no one in the higher and further education sector believes that that is sustainable.I will give another example in which the figures are absolutely unsustainable. The budget that was published ...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

26 Jan 2011

Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 1

The member understands that the financing of the Scottish Government comes from the block grant from Westminster, the funding of which comes, in part, from taxes such as fuel duty. He will also be well aware of discussions in the run-up to the UK budget on 23 March, in which I...

Derek Brownlee (South of Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

26 Jan 2011

Budget (Scotland) (No 5) Bill: Stage 1

There are things in this budget with which we agree, such as the pay freeze on salaries of over £21,000, to protect jobs; the protection of the national health service budget; the funding for additional police; the maintenance of the cuts in business rates for small and medium...

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

25 Jan 2011

Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry

So HMRC and not the Scottish Parliament decides whether the SVR is implemented.

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

25 Jan 2011

Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry

If HMRC makes a request, you do not need to accede to it.

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

25 Jan 2011

Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry

The core Scottish Government argument is therefore that you have been unable to reach agreement with HMRC on how much money—if any—you must hand over to ensure that its system can cope following changes that it initiated. That is why the SVR will not be available in the early ...

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

25 Jan 2011

Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry

On what basis would it have the authority to say that to you?

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

25 Jan 2011

Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry

In your speech in November, and in what you have just said, you have been pretty robust in saying that the basis on which HMRC asked for additional money was—to put it politely—not well founded. Why, then, are you using HMRC’s request for additional finance as a justification ...

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

25 Jan 2011

Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry

I appreciate that it was sensible to try to reach an agreement with HMRC, but the Scotland Act 1998 does not say that the basic rate can be varied if HMRC agrees. It is a decision for the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament to take.15:00

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

25 Jan 2011

Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry

In November, you said that you could not agree to that and that if you did not agree to the £7 million demand that had been made in July 2010, the earliest that the SVR arrangements would be available to us would be the following year—2013-14. You said:“After dialogue lasting ...

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

25 Jan 2011

Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry

In your speech in the debate in November, you made the point that the Scottish variable rate remains on the statute book under the Scotland Act 1998. In your opening statement today, which in large part replicated that speech, you made the point that in July last year HMRC ask...

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

25 Jan 2011

Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry

Members have seen various versions of the statement of funding policy, but you have the advantage of having experienced how it works in practice. We can understand the principle behind the devolved Administration bearing the cost. If the Scottish Government says, “Right, we wa...

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

25 Jan 2011

Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry

At the debate on the SVR in November last year, the cabinet secretary made the point—I paraphrase—that, regardless of decisions by the Scottish Government, the power to vary the basic rate of income tax remains under the Scotland Act 1998, so the power has not lapsed. If a ser...

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

25 Jan 2011

Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry

David Whitton referred to the service level agreement, which lapsed at the end of July 2007. It may not be central to what we are looking at just now, but one thing that puzzles me is why that agreement, which spanned the second session, was not signed until March 2007. HMRC w...

Derek Brownlee (South of Scotland) (Con) Con Committee

25 Jan 2011

Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry

The Scottish Government has released quite a large amount of documentation, which I presume the panel members have seen. Some of your answers have indicated that you were aware of it without necessarily following it in your respective times as finance minister. As far as you a...

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

20 Jan 2011

Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry

So the first official confirmation that you received in your role as secretary of state that, effectively, there was no capacity to use the powers came when officials spoke to you following discussions with the Scottish Government in August last year.

Derek Brownlee Con Committee

20 Jan 2011

Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry

I sense that the officials may have taken the view that I was trying to tempt them into an area into which they might be wise not to go. I appreciate what you said about why you wrote to the party leaders in November in the context of policy formulation ahead of May’s election...

Derek Brownlee (South of Scotland) (Con) Con Committee

20 Jan 2011

Scottish Variable Rate Inquiry

Your opening statement was extremely helpful in setting out the situation as you see it. I appreciate that there is a tricky balancing act in relation to what happened before the Government of which you are a member took office and the appropriate access—or lack thereof—to the...

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

20 Jan 2011

Scottish Executive Question Time · Devolved Taxes and Charges (Forecasts)

It was illuminating to find out that monitoring takes place “regularly”, without any further explanation of how frequent that might be. Would it not help the Government’s case for having access to greater fiscal powers if it were rather more transparent about the powers that i...

Derek Brownlee (South of Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber

20 Jan 2011

Scottish Executive Question Time · Devolved Taxes and Charges (Forecasts)

2. To ask the Scottish Government how frequently the forecast income from devolved taxes and charges is monitored and how accurate published forecasts have been. (S3O-12695)

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

20 Jan 2011

Protecting Public Services

The independent budget review did not say that the council tax freeze was underfunded. If the Labour Party is saying that the council tax freeze is a bad thing, perhaps it could tell us by how much it would like council tax to increase.

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

20 Jan 2011

Protecting Public Services

The member questioned the coalition Government’s commitment to the NHS in England, where it has protected NHS spending. The Opposition did not make such a pledge. Is it not the case that it is the Labour Party’s policy that it would prefer to cut the NHS rather than the deficit?

Derek Brownlee Con Chamber

20 Jan 2011

Protecting Public Services

To be fair to the member, in the 1980s, we had a difficult inheritance from the previous Labour Government, so I can see why he might wish to draw parallels with the situation in which the current UK Government finds itself. I assume that the flexibility that we have developed...