Meeting of the Parliament 11 January 2024
People across Scotland, including all of us in the chamber, rely on public services, whether we are talking about the high-quality education and training that our children and young people get, the access to the right treatment and care that our loved ones need when they are unwell, the support that victims and witnesses of crime receive through the justice system or the support that the most vulnerable members of our community obtain through our progressive social security system.
This Government is determined to maintain and improve our public services, despite our facing the most challenging financial situation since devolution. Our block grant funding, which is derived from United Kingdom Government spending, has fallen by 1.2 per cent in real terms since 2022-23, and our capital spending power is due to contract by almost 10 per cent in real terms over five years.
Our approach to maintaining our public services is informed by our shared values, as set out in Scotland’s national performance framework, which include treating people with kindness, dignity and compassion. Those values, alongside our missions of equality, opportunity and community, guide everything that we do. We believe that everyone in Scotland should experience high-quality services that are delivered effectively and efficiently, and that, when people need further support for whatever reason, public services should be able to identify those needs early, build relationships with them to understand their needs and work together to support them in whatever way they need to be supported.
Crucially, we also believe that those people with the broadest shoulders should be asked to contribute a little more. That is right and fair, and our progressive approach—our social contract—sets Scotland apart from the rest of the UK.
As I have said many times, the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s autumn statement was a worst-case scenario for Scotland. The fiscal settlement from the UK Government undermines the viability of public services in Scotland and, indeed, of services across the whole of the UK. Responsibility for the situation lies with the UK Government, which has brought us a decade of austerity, Brexit’s undermining of living standards and the calamitous Liz Truss mini-budget. Furthermore, when drawing up his autumn statement, the chancellor was faced with a choice on how to use the £27 billion of fiscal headroom that he had available to him. He chose to cut taxes at the expense of public services. Indeed, real-terms cuts are being made across a number of UK Government departments, including the Department for Health and Social Care.
Our values and missions are at the heart of the 2024-25 Scottish budget and have informed all the choices that we have made in response to an incredibly challenging economic environment. Importantly, the UK Government has not similarly prioritised public services through its recent policy decisions—in fact, it has done quite the reverse.
Within the constraints of the current devolution settlement, we are using all the powers that are available to us to maximise investment in our public services. Indeed, the Scottish Fiscal Commission has estimated that our income tax policy choices since devolution will raise an additional £1.45 billion in 2024-25 compared with what would have happened if we had matched UK Government policy.
Those spending decisions build on our successful legacy of investing in our public services and delivering meaningful reform that has improved outcomes for many people across Scotland. For example, the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 underpins the most significant public service reform since devolution and continues to deliver significant savings and improved outcomes. Police Scotland is on track to deliver cumulative savings of more than £2 billion by 2026, and the creation of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has removed around £482 million from the fire service cost base over the past 10 years.