Hansard

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Liam McArthur) LD

The next item of business is a debate on motion S6M-08007, in the name of Tom Arthur, on the Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2023. 14:51

The Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth (Tom Arthur) SNP

Today’s debate on the Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order 2023 seeks Parliament’s approval for the guaranteed allocations of revenue funding to individ...

Miles Briggs (Lothian) (Con) Con

Across the world, Governments are meeting, as we are today, to discuss and approve budgets. I was disappointed that the minister did not touch on what has de...

Mark Griffin (Central Scotland) (Lab) Lab

We will not oppose the order today, because we know that it is necessary to get funding allocated to councils. However, as we indicated during stages 1 and 3...

Tom Arthur SNP

Will Mark Griffin give way?

The Deputy Presiding Officer LD

Please be as brief as possible, minister.

Tom Arthur SNP

I recognise that the timing can sometimes be suboptimal, to put it mildly, but does Mark Griffin recognise that, ultimately, we have to operate in the wider ...

The Deputy Presiding Officer LD

You should be winding up now, Mr Griffin.

Mark Griffin Lab

I appreciate the impact of the timing of the allocation from the UK Government, but this is a recurring theme. It is a pattern every year in local government...

Alex Cole-Hamilton (Edinburgh Western) (LD) LD

I apologise to members for my late arrival. I was caught up in a broadcast interview that overran. The tone of Tom Arthur’s remarks is striking. It is compl...

Tom Arthur SNP

What I am inferring—and what I think the member is implying—is that there has to be strategic realignment of funding priorities in Government to give local g...

Alex Cole-Hamilton LD

I told you exactly where I would take that money from; for a start, I would get rid of the vast and unnecessary bureaucracy that is the ministerial takeover ...

Tom Arthur SNP

I thank colleagues for their contributions. On Alex Cole-Hamilton’s final remark, I appreciate that he might disagree with the distribution and the allocatio...

Alex Cole-Hamilton LD

If I have misrepresented the minister, I apologise. Will he clarify for the chamber—I will correct the record if this is the case—whether council tax will be...

Tom Arthur SNP

If the member had listened to what I was saying before he intervened, he would understand that the pace of council tax reform is not a matter for Government ...

Miles Briggs Con

Will the member take an intervention?

Tom Arthur SNP

I am afraid that I am out of time, Mr Briggs. I am happy to have those conversations, but they have to be serious, grown-up conversations. If we are talking...