Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 16 December 2015
16 Dec 2015 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Draft Budget 2016-17
Instead, what we have from the SNP is a budget for an election only. It is short term, with all the cuts hidden away, but we know that the cuts are still to come. The finance minister should today have laid out plans across his whole budget for at least three years. We should have seen a Scottish spending review. He has selected the good news to tell us but hidden away the bad. Austerity hidden is not austerity avoided, and people deserve to know the truth.
The SNP’s credibility on the economy is being questioned by experts. Growth is down. We are lagging behind the rest of the United Kingdom. Oil prices are at their lowest level for decades, and the employment statistics published this morning are down and still below pre-recession levels. After nine years, the finance secretary has only just discovered that he can do something about productivity, and I say to him as gently as I can that a freeze is not progressive. A freeze actually does not help the poorest people against austerity. [Interruption.]
In the same item of business
The Presiding Officer (Tricia Marwick)
NPA
The next item of business is a statement by John Swinney on the draft budget 2016-17. The Deputy First Minister will take questions at the end of his stateme...
The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy (John Swinney)
SNP
The Scottish Government’s purpose is to deliver sustainable economic growth and to create the opportunity for all of our citizens to flourish. We believe tha...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
Order. The Deputy First Minister will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement. I intend to allow around 60 minutes for questions, after whic...
Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab)
Lab
I thank the finance secretary for advance sight of his statement—well, at least part of it. So much is hidden, and I am not just talking about the redacted s...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
Order. Let us hear Ms Baillie.
Jackie Baillie
Lab
Instead, what we have from the SNP is a budget for an election only. It is short term, with all the cuts hidden away, but we know that the cuts are still to ...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
Order.
Jackie Baillie
Lab
The Scottish Government has given us recycled announcements. It has told us which budgets it is increasing but not which budgets are being cut. The finance s...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
Order.
Jackie Baillie
Lab
Does it deliver fairer taxes? No. Does it deliver a longer term plan for Scotland? No. Does it deliver an anti-austerity alternative? The answer is no. The ...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
Order.
Jackie Baillie
Lab
Surely Scotland deserves better than that.
John Swinney
SNP
The first point that Jackie Baillie raised highlights the atrocious lack of communication within the Labour Party, because this is not the first time that a ...
Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con)
Con
I thank the finance secretary for an advance copy of his statement. This is a historic budget for the Scottish Government. For the first time since devolutio...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
Order. Let us hear Mr Fraser.
Murdo Fraser
Con
It cannot be forgotten that the finance secretary had a choice in the matter, and he chose not to increase the resource available to him by levying additiona...
John Swinney
SNP
I know that it is early days in the scrutiny of the budget, but there was a fundamental problem and flaw in Mr Fraser deploying the argument that I have not ...
Murdo Fraser
Con
No. Interruption.
The Presiding Officer
NPA
Order.
John Swinney
SNP
Mr Fraser argued that I should have taken that step, and I can see why that would have suited him, but if I had done that, it would have led to an increase o...
Mark McDonald (Aberdeen Donside) (SNP)
SNP
As the MSP for the Haudagain roundabout, I welcome the Deputy First Minister’s announcement that works will begin in 2016-17. The Deputy First Minister ment...
John Swinney
SNP
I am pleased that we have managed to signal the start of the work at the Haudagain roundabout. I can never hear mention of the Haudagain roundabout without h...
Willie Rennie (Mid Scotland and Fife) (LD)
LD
I thank the Deputy First Minister for advance sight of his statement. I am sure that there are many things in the budget that Liberal Democrats can support. ...
John Swinney
SNP
Let me work my way through the different issues that Willie Rennie has raised. First of all, on mental health, there is an additional £50 million in the budg...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
As members will imagine, a large number of members wish to ask questions. I therefore ask for brief questions and brief answers so that we can get through them.
Kenneth Gibson (Cunninghame North) (SNP)
SNP
I warmly welcome the cabinet secretary’s very positive statement, particularly the excellent news for my constituents of a new Ardrossan to Brodick ferry and...
John Swinney
SNP
I cannot give Mr Gibson a definitive date for the commencement of that work, but it will be during the 2016-17 financial year. As he has said, all the author...
Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab)
Lab
The Deputy First Minister talked about investment in education, but we know that since 2011 this Government has cut education spending even as it was increas...
John Swinney
SNP
I thought that Iain Gray would have welcomed the fact that the Government has put in place protection for the colleges budget, that we have protected the hig...
Clare Adamson (Central Scotland) (SNP)
SNP
I warmly welcome the increase in the budget for affordable homes by £90 million to £690 million. How many of the 50,000 new affordable homes that have been p...