Meeting of the Parliament 05 June 2024
I rise in support of the appeal to change the business motion for the following key reasons. The first is the quantum of the sums involved. We are talking about hundreds of millions of pounds of funding. Although the absolute figure might be disputed, it is potentially up to around 1 per cent of the Scottish Government’s budget.
We know that many of the figures are a matter of published fact—they have been published by the EU itself. We also know that many of the funding mechanisms are technical and dependent on match funding and other factors.
Finally, there is the matter of timing. Although there is the claim that there is a year to go, there is at the very least speculation that some of those deadlines are looming as soon as the end of June. Given the matter of the quantum, comparison with published fact, the technical nature of the funding and the timelines, I believe that a topical question at the start of this week is inadequate to answer those questions. Parliament needs a statement so that we can interrogate the facts and due to the significant concern and the significant sums of money that are involved.