Meeting of the Parliament 15 December 2022
Presiding Officer, I, too, thank you for your investigations into this afternoon’s incidents. Given the comments that the Deputy First Minister made at the beginning of his statement, I note that the details that were laid bare by Murdo Fraser were news to me, particularly and most prominently the rate of land and buildings transaction tax. I confirm that they were not in my copy of the statement. They were in the embargoed sections. It was an impossibility for Opposition parties to see them. I consider the Deputy First Minister’s comments to be a smear. I ask him to withdraw them and investigate who leaked the statement from the Government, even if it was without his authorisation.
Budgets are about priorities, and the need to deliver on the priorities of the Scottish people could not be greater at this time, but this Government has a delivery problem. We know that there was an underspend of half a billion pounds from the finance and economy budget last year because the Government could not get Covid support grants out the door. This year, the emergency budget saw a cut to building energy efficiency funding, apparently because there was a lack of demand—a lack of demand in the middle of a cost of living crisis caused by increases in gas and electricity costs. It beggars belief.
The budget must deliver for those who are in most need. Can the Deputy First Minister set out how the budget will tackle the Government’s clear deficiencies in delivery by assisting those who are in urgent need?
Inflation is robbing people of their security, their dignity and their ability to provide for their families, so the budget must pay particular attention to pay in the public sector. Almost 300,000 people in the public sector are on less than £15 an hour. The ONS data is clear that 23,000 people in the public sector earn less than the national living wage. That is a scandal. Will the Deputy First Minister clarify what those figures will look like, as a result of the budget, at the end of this financial year?
In recent years, Scottish Labour has been consistent about social care pay. Last year, the minimum wage for social care rose by just 50p. This year, it has risen by even less: 40p—an increase of 3.8 per cent. That is an insult. There is a direct and real cost to the NHS of delayed discharge. That has got worse because those who carry out social care have left for jobs with better pay. What is the cost to the health service of failing to increase pay to £12 an hour? Has an assessment of that been carried out?
I also ask the Deputy First Minister to concede that the Scottish Fiscal Commission has been clear that Scottish growth in wages and jobs has lagged behind the UK average and behind every other devolved nation. Does the Deputy First Minister acknowledge the Government’s failure to deliver a growth plan that is worthy of the name, and its failure to grow jobs and people? How will this budget help that?
Finally, Scottish Labour will always support progressive taxation, but we are also clear that, if progressive tax measures are to be taken, clear improvements to public services must be demonstrated. Today’s statement, with its manifesto-busting measure, does not do that. People will not accept a rise in tax bills if all they see is a further decline in their services after 15 years of the Scottish National Party’s mismanagement of those. Neither will they tolerate such a tax hike if they see the ranks of spin doctors, quangos and civil servants swelling. Will the Deputy First Minister bring forward a clear plan that sets out how the money will improve the NHS—not just the amount of the funding—and will he pledge to cut Government waste, to justify the rise in tax?