MSPs call for changes to Scots budget

17 Jan 08
The Scottish government has been told by an influential cross-party Holyrood committee to rethink aspects of its £33bn budget.

18 January 2008

The Scottish government has been told by an influential cross-party Holyrood committee to rethink aspects of its £33bn budget.

Ministers will need to re-examine their plans for police recruitment and planned reductions in business rates following concerns expressed by the Parliament's finance committee.

In its report examining the first draft budget of the Scottish National Party administration, published on January 16, the committee also raised questions about the government's ability to achieve efficiency savings of 2%.

The committee's recommendation that ministers should make extra funding available for increased levels of police recruitment follows controversy over the SNP's plans to recruit 500 new officers – about half the number it promised in its election manifesto.

The MSPs also called on the government to consider whether there was scope for further reductions in business rates applying in 2008/09 'beyond those stated in the spending review as the first stage of the acceleration of the reductions'.

The report said clarification was needed on whether an overall figure of £70m distributed to councils that freeze council tax bills would be adjusted if not all councils agreed to the freeze.

The committee stated: 'It appears that no additional resources will be made available to councils who do not freeze their council tax. It could be argued that this runs contrary to the notion that local authorities are being given flexibility to spend funds as they see fit.'

Committee convener Andrew Welsh, an SNP MSP, said concerns had been raised about the information available to committees on the budget and about the consequences of a concordat agreed by the Scottish government and local authorities.

He added: 'We also recognise that there are concerns about the reduction in ring-fencing, and we believe that the nature and operation of single outcome agreements between central and local government are crucial.

'So we have made a number of recommendations to ensure the proper tracking and monitoring of spending in this new landscape.'

At a meeting of the finance committee on January 15, Labour and the Liberal Democrats failed to win support for most of the budget changes they proposed.

 

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