A report published today by the Parliament's powerful Finance Committee expresses its 'serious concern' over the arrangements for the scrutiny of the Executive's spending plans.

Announcing publication of the report, convener Mike Watson said:

"We are seriously concerned that due to the unavailability of the detailed expenditure figures this year, the Parliament, to a large extent, will not be in a position to carry our detailed scrutiny of the spending plans of the Executive.

"The budget process timetable this year was, to a significant degree, thrown off course by the timing of the comprehensive spending review (CSR) and additional spending statements. While the Committee welcomes the additional funding that has come from the Chancellor's CSR announcement in July, we are concerned that a detailed breakdown of this additional money has still to be published.

"The unavailability of this information meant that some subject committees were not in a position to examine whether proposed expenditure was adequate to fund policy commitments. Clearly, the timing of UK expenditure announcements could be a recurring impediment to meaningful scrutiny of the budget process in Scotland.

"Notwithstanding our recognition that there are no straightforward solutions to this problem, we recommend that the Executive addresses this issue as a matter of urgency and reports back to us with proposals on how the arrangements can be modified.

"On a more positive note, we very much welcome the fact that the specific expenditure re-allocations recommended by Parliament's subject committee's during the first phase of budget process were adopted by the Executive. Although the monetary values were small in comparison to the total expenditure, the fact remains that this additional provision should have a positive effect on the services that are provided. One such example of this re-allocation was the Justice Committee's recommendation on financial provision to Victim Support Scotland.

"In conclusion, our committee is encouraged that, even in this, the first year of the budget process, with all the acknowledged shortcomings, a real difference has been made to public spending plans in Scotland through the process of Parliamentary scrutiny."

The whole Parliament will debate the budget reports findings in the main chamber on Wednesday afternoon (December 13).

BACKGROUND NOTES

The committee's full report is available on the Parliament's website or can be purchased from outlets of the Stationery Office.

For further information, the media contact is:
Eric MacLeod: 0131 348 5605
email: eric.macleod@scottish.parliament.uk