Meeting of the Parliament 30 October 2024
I am delighted to open for the Government on the second of our triple header of finance debates this week. I welcome the opportunity to debate the issues that the Conservative motion raises, following yesterday’s interesting debate on fiscal sustainability. As I outlined yesterday, and as I reiterate today, the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that public finances are sustainable. Taxation and the economy are two of the three pillars that will ensure that that is delivered, alongside our approach to public spending. I will focus on those issues today.
Mr Hoy began by criticising our record on the economy. A top priority for the Government is boosting economic growth, which creates good jobs, supports investment in the green industries of the future, tackles poverty and sustains high-quality public services.
Let us look at our record. Mr Hoy and the Tories will be interested to learn that gross domestic product per capita in Scotland has grown faster than it has in the UK since 2007. It has grown by 10.7 per cent in Scotland compared with only 5.6 per cent across the UK as a whole—almost double. On top of that, over the same period, productivity has grown at an average annual rate of 1.1 per cent in Scotland compared with 0.4 per cent in the UK—more than double.