Official Report search · Parliament Workbench

Chamber

Meeting of the Parliament 26 January 2011

26 Jan 2011 · S3 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

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

Swinney, John SNP North Tayside Watch on SPTV

Last week, I introduced the 2011-12 budget bill, which I commend to the Parliament. The bill takes forward the draft budget that I set out in November.

I welcome the Finance Committee’s report on Scotland’s spending plans and draft budget for 2011-12, which was published last week, and I thank everyone who contributed to its contents. The Government will respond to the report in the normal way, but I will offer initial reactions in my speech.

Let me start by commenting on the context for the budget bill and the principles that underpin our proposals. The bill responds to public spending challenges in Scotland that are unprecedented in the period since devolution. Following the United Kingdom spending review, Scotland’s budget for 2011-12 will be £1.3 billion less than the budget for the current financial year, comprising reductions of around £500 million to our revenue budgets and around £800 million to our capital budgets. It is vital that we take careful decisions now to respond to that challenge.

The robust action that the Scottish Government has taken to protect the economic recovery, support jobs and stimulate economic growth is beginning to deliver results in Scotland. After a shorter and shallower recession in Scotland than there has been in the rest of the UK, the most recent economic indicators highlight the strengthening economic position in Scotland. The 0.5 per cent gross domestic product growth in quarter 3 of 2010 builds on Scotland’s strong performance in the second quarter, which saw the highest growth rate since the second quarter of 2006 and exceeded the G7 average.

The pick-up in economic activity has led to a welcome improvement in labour market conditions in Scotland, with an additional 40,000 people in employment since April 2010 and a decline in unemployment of 5,000 in the three-month period to the end of November 2010.

However, the recovery remains fragile, as the UK GDP figures demonstrated yesterday, and we must sustain our actions on the economy. That is why we will publish a further update of the Scottish economic recovery plan next month, which, together with our spending plans, will ensure that Scotland can enjoy a strong and speedy recovery from the global recession.

In addressing the financial challenge that we face, the Government has set out proposals that deal with the largest fall in public spending in any one year in Scotland. We must work within the spending totals that we have been given, and the priority must be for all parties to work together in the national interest to build consensus around the bill and ensure that budget allocations can be finalised before the start of the next financial year. That is essential to the delivery of our public services and to our on-going efforts to support Scotland’s economy.

The Government will engage on the matter constructively across the political spectrum. It was in that spirit that I published illustrative budget information covering the period to 2014-15, in response to the parliamentary debate in November.

As in previous years, the Government is willing to consider alternative proposals to the proposals in the budget. However, we must be realistic about the resources that are available to us. If other parties want to propose increased expenditure in support of particular objectives, I ask that they also bring forward proposals for identifying the resources to fund those changes in spending programmes.

Search Hansard contributions

Meeting of the Parliament 26 January 2011

In the same item of business