By David Scott
27 November 2009
Urgent action is needed across the public sector to lessen the longer-term impact of spending cuts on jobs and services, the auditor general for Scotland has warned.
Bob Black told the public audit committee of the Scottish Parliament that Scotland’s public finances faced a long and difficult period and ‘serious planning’ had to start now.
Black was briefing the cross-party committee of MSPs on his recently published report, Scotland’s public finances: preparing for the future. It warned that if the current level of spending continued there would be a budget gap of between £1.2bn and £2.9bn by 2013/14.
Black said: ‘There’s no doubt that we’re shortly entering a long and difficult period for Scotland’s public finances. I hope that the report will not only inform people but also give a sense of urgency with which the challenges should be addressed – and that applies to everyone in the public sector.’
If difficult decisions were postponed, the risk was that action taken later would have a greater impact on services and jobs, he added.
The auditor general told the MSPs at the November 18 hearing that the present method of budgeting was unlikely to work well during a period of financial constraint, when hard choices would need to be made between competing priorities.
He acknowledged that the Scottish Government had strengthened its financial management, with significant improvements in recent years.
Committee convener Hugh Henry said: ‘I think there’s still an unwillingness amongst politicians of all parties to confront the reality that is facing us.’
27 November 2009
Urgent action is needed across the public sector to lessen the longer-term impact of spending cuts on jobs and services, the auditor general for Scotland has warned.
Bob Black told the public audit committee of the Scottish Parliament that Scotland’s public finances faced a long and difficult period and ‘serious planning’ had to start now.
Black was briefing the cross-party committee of MSPs on his recently published report, Scotland’s public finances: preparing for the future. It warned that if the current level of spending continued there would be a budget gap of between £1.2bn and £2.9bn by 2013/14.
Black said: ‘There’s no doubt that we’re shortly entering a long and difficult period for Scotland’s public finances. I hope that the report will not only inform people but also give a sense of urgency with which the challenges should be addressed – and that applies to everyone in the public sector.’
If difficult decisions were postponed, the risk was that action taken later would have a greater impact on services and jobs, he added.
The auditor general told the MSPs at the November 18 hearing that the present method of budgeting was unlikely to work well during a period of financial constraint, when hard choices would need to be made between competing priorities.
He acknowledged that the Scottish Government had strengthened its financial management, with significant improvements in recent years.
Committee convener Hugh Henry said: ‘I think there’s still an unwillingness amongst politicians of all parties to confront the reality that is facing us.’
