06 July 2007
The Scottish National Party has been criticised by a public finance expert for lacking financial discipline and making 'dubious assumptions' about future savings.
Arthur Midwinter, visiting professor at the Institute of Accounting Research at Edinburgh University, said the SNP minority government's £3.2bn of election commitments 'far exceeded' the £1.5bn of real growth expected through the Barnett Formula, which works out Scotland's share of UK spending.
'Therefore it is essential that any plans to fund spending growth through efficiencies is based on clearly identified and robustly costed savings, not dubious assumptions about savings in the future,' he added.
Midwinter, a former adviser to the Scottish Parliament finance committee, was commenting on a statement made last week by Finance Secretary John Swinney, who disclosed an underspending figure of £242m in the budget of the outgoing government.
The minister said that from this total, £135m would be carried forward under the EYF (End of Year Flexibility) arrangements. These resources, which were part of the £1.5bn of Scottish money currently held in reserves at the Treasury, would be used to deliver the new government's commitment to increase sustainable economic growth.
However, Midwinter said Swinney's reference to £1.5bn in reserves was misleading. 'Most of this is already committed and cannot be used for recurring expenditure or tax reductions,' he stated.
Midwinter added: 'Governing requires a rigorous approach to the public finances. The new prime minister's slapdown of the SNP for their lack of financial discipline was well justified.
'The statement reveals the SNP Executive has no budget strategy, but simply a list of five strategic objectives too vague and meaningless to determine priorities in resource allocation. This is not good enough.'
Midwinter said the forthcoming Scottish Comprehensive Spending Review provided the chance for the SNP to put its spending pledges on to a surer footing.
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