20 July 2007
Scottish ministers are to demand that unspent cash should be fully available to the Executive in the next budget round and not retained by the Treasury in London.
First Minister Alex Salmond and Finance Secretary John Swinney want assurances that unspent resources amounting to about £1.5bn for the past three years can be readily accessed.
Swinney, along with ministers from Northern Ireland and Wales, discussed budget issues in talks in London earlier this month with the chief secretary to the Treasury Andy Burnham.
The minority SNP administration believes that the previous Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition at Holyrood failed to make full use of their budget allocation over the past eight years.
Scottish ministers can 'draw down' cash from reserves held in London but need to negotiate with the Treasury to do so.
An Executive spokeswoman said the recent talks were 'very positive'.
It is understood that Swinney accepts that prudent financial management will be needed following the next spending round, which will be much tighter than in previous years.
However, he believes there must be full access to the unspent resources of previous years if required.
In a recent statement to the Scottish Parliament, Swinney announced that £242m had been underspent in last year's Scottish budget. From this, £135m would be carried forward as an 'end of year flexibility' underspend.
He added that these resources were part of the £1.5bn of Scottish money currently held at the Treasury.
The Executive decided not to reallocate any EYF to portfolios as it believes these should be considered as part of the decisions to be taken on the spending review.
Salmond, who had his first face-to-face meeting with Gordon Brown at the British-Irish Council meeting in Belfast this week, is planning to raise the issue of unspent resources directly with the prime minister.
PFjul2007
