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Meeting of the Parliament 19 September 2013

19 Sep 2013 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Scottish Economy

Swinney, John SNP Perthshire North Watch on SPTV

We have heard that suggestion from the Office for Budget Responsibility and the UK Government, which gave clear indications during the spending round at the end of June. We know what the spending figures will be until the end of 2015-16, and the OBR and the UK Government have made it clear that there will be two further years of reductions in public expenditure as a consequence of the UK Government’s approach.

The Scottish Government has a range of different measures to support employment. The 25,000 modern apprenticeships programme has been extended into 2015-16 as a consequence of the budget. We reaffirmed our support for the small business bonus scheme in the budget. Various relief schemes that are worth more than £560 million per year support the reduction or removal of business rates under the small business bonus scheme for approximately 89,000 businesses in Scotland. The FSB made the interesting observation that the small business bonus scheme has given thousands of Scottish businesses a real shot in the arm during an incredibly difficult period, and we are glad to have assisted business in that way.

The Government is also taking forward a range of opportunities to support innovation, the roll-out of digital technology and the improvement of opportunities for companies to internationalise their business activity. On Monday, a very significant renewable energy investment opportunity was taken forward with the consenting of the MeyGen proposal for the Pentland Firth that Mr Ewing announced.

Those are all illustrations of how the Government is doing all that it can to support and accelerate the recovery in Scotland. Those actions provide very strong foundations for the debate on Scotland’s future, which of course is now beginning to create unity around some central points.

A point on which I think everybody across the spectrum is agreed is that Scotland is a wealthy and productive country that can afford to be independent. No serious contributor to the independence debate disputes the fiscal commission working group’s finding that

“Scotland has the potential to be a successful independent country”.

When compared to the 34 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, our GDP per head in Scotland would be the eighth highest—it would be 18 per cent higher than that of the UK. Even without oil, we match the UK in productivity terms, so we know that we more than pay our way. Before adding oil, we know that the taxes that we generate per head are close to the UK average. Including a geographic share of oil, we have paid more tax per head in each of the past 32 years than the rest of the United Kingdom. Even in the depths of the recession, that trend has continued, with Scotland being in a relatively stronger fiscal position than the UK over the past five years.

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Meeting of the Parliament 19 September 2013

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