By David Scott in Edinburgh
20 May 2011
John Swinney is to remain as finance secretary following the Scottish National Party’s landslide victory in the Holyrood elections, it was revealed yesterday. But he will be given a higher profile on jobs and have some of his public spending responsibilities transferred to a new member of the Cabinet.
The change has been criticised by a former finance adviser to the Scottish Parliament. Professor Arthur Midwinter told Public Finance that it appeared the aim was to make Swinney a minister for the economy or a minister similar to the chancellor in the UK Treasury. ‘To infer that somehow he can promote jobs and the economy given the limited economic powers of devolved administrations is an exaggeration,’ he said.
He believed it was wrong to split the brief, adding: ‘All public spending should be the responsibility of the finance minister and the change could be a recipe for conflict within the Cabinet.’
Midwinter, a leading authority on public finance, is a professor at the Institute of Public Sector Accounting Research at Edinburgh University and a former adviser to the finance committee and to Labour MSPs in the Scottish Parliament.
His comments came after Salmond announced an enlarged Cabinet in which all members of the former administration have kept their jobs. The promotion of junior ministers brings the size of the Cabinet from six to nine.
Although the economy was one of Swinney’s responsibilities in the previous administration, a spokesman for the Scottish Government said his new portfolio as secretary for finance, employment and sustainable growth would have an ‘intensified focus on jobs’.
However, some of the responsibilities he held previously are being transferred to a new minister – Alex Neil, formerly a minister for housing.
As Cabinet minister for infrastructure and capital investment, Neil will take over areas such as procurement, public transport, European structure funds and the Scottish Futures Trust, the quango set up to oversee capital investment.
Swinney’s brief was previously considered to be so wide and extensive that he was often referred to as the ‘minister for everything’.
In his revised role he remains in a key position with responsibility for the Scottish budget, a spending review in the autumn and areas such as local government and public service reform.
Salmond announced the Cabinet appointments the day after he was re-elected first minister to lead the first majority Scottish Government since devolution in 1999.
