Meeting of the Parliament 10 December 2014
I want to make progress.
From Labour and the SNP, for example, we already hear calls to increase income taxation. That will be their choice and one that they can take to the electorate of this country. For my part, my priorities will be simple. First, I want to reduce the taxes that we will be responsible for. Early next year, the Scottish Conservatives will launch our low tax commission, which will examine how we can better use the basket of taxes that we will soon have control over and will advise us how best to go forward as a dynamic, low-tax nation.
Secondly, we will support all moves to grow the tax base. The “Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland” figures show that, per head of population, income tax receipts are lower in Scotland than they are in the UK as a whole, but if we got those receipts up to UK levels, nearly £2 billion more per year would flow into the Scottish Government’s coffers. That creates a real incentive for the Scottish Government to do so. Given that half of all VAT is to be assigned here too, there is also an incentive to grow retail sales to support Scottish businesses that make and sell things. That is the prize on offer if we drive our economy forward, and it is, I suggest, a significant prize.
We will also face big challenges on how we use the new welfare powers. Again, we will no doubt differ in our approach to how those powers should be used. I support reform of our welfare system that gives help and encouragement to people to get back to work and which cuts the country’s benefits bill. The SNP opposes that reform. I back a cap on the amount that any one family can claim in welfare. The SNP says that it wants to lift that cap. I believe that it should not be possible to claim more in benefits than the average family earns through work. The SNP does not agree.
The choices that ministers face in this area are immense. The new personal independence payment system is to be devolved to the Scottish Government. The work programme will also be devolved. In addition, ministers will be able to propose entirely new benefits if they so wish. Just as the Scottish Government has chosen to eliminate the spare-room subsidy in Scotland, it will have the power to act in other areas, too. It could offer a resettlement benefit to prisoners who leave jail, a payment to lone parents in parts of Scotland who need childcare and even a Scottish winter wind and rain allowance for days like today. It may choose to offer all or none of those things, but the choice is there to be made.
What is proposed will take time to implement. Switching over complex benefit systems to the Scottish Government, which does not currently have the technical infrastructure to support those mechanisms, means that capacity will have to be built. That is something that we need to do right. We need the Scottish Government to act in good faith to ensure that that capacity is built and that the transition is a smooth one.
When he published his proposals last month, Lord Smith rightly described the commission’s work as an “unprecedented achievement.” He added:
“It demanded compromise from all of the parties. In some cases that meant moving to devolve greater powers than they had previously committed to, while for other parties it meant accepting the outcome would fall short of their ultimate ambitions. It shows that, however difficult, our political leaders can come together, work together, and reach agreement with one another.”
I believe that he was right in that assessment. I also believe that voters in Scotland expect us to agree something else, too—that it is well past time for us to focus on the powers that we have and those that are coming to us rather than stoke false grievance about those powers that will remain reserved.
People in Scotland gave us their decision. They want a powerful Scottish Parliament that remains within rather than being separate from the United Kingdom. The work that the Smith commission has put in means that we have the tools to deliver on that verdict, so let us get on and use them.
I move,
That the Parliament agrees with the Smith Commission’s proposals to devolve significant new powers to the Parliament; welcomes the fact that all five parties represented at the Parliament came together to reach an agreement on these powers, and now recognises the need to move on from a debate about what powers are devolved to one that focuses on how best to use these significant new powers for the betterment of the people of Scotland.
14:55