Meeting of the Parliament 24 February 2016
In the past 12 months, the number of jobs that have been lost in the devolved public sector in Scotland is 500—that is 0.1 per cent of public sector employment. [John Swinney has corrected this contribution. See end of report.] In addition, employment in Scotland has risen by more than 20,000 jobs. That is the context in which I would put Mr Rowley’s comments.
The budget ensures that our older citizens are able to access free personal care in an integrated health and social care system. The tax on ill health that prescription charges represent will be abolished, saving those with long-term illnesses around £104 per year. Families across the country will benefit from free school meals and 600 hours of early learning and childcare, saving £707 per child per year. Households will have their council tax frozen for a ninth consecutive year, saving the average band D household around £1,550 over the course of this session of Parliament. In addition, the Scottish Government continues to mitigate the most damaging effects of the UK Government’s welfare cuts. That is what this Government is doing to protect household incomes in Scotland, and that is what is implicit in the budget that is before Parliament today.