CFIN003/2004 | 15 December 2005

FINANCE COMMITTEE PUBLISHES BUDGET REPORT

The Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee has today published its report on the Scottish Executive’s Draft Budget for 2005-06.

The Finance Committee is responsible for the overall scrutiny of the Budget and its recommendations include that:

• there is a need for some form of strategic target related to economic growth, using comparative growth and growth indicators as benchmarks for improvement;
• the Executive should have been clearer in the presentation of its efficiency savings;
• the Executive examines the impact of low increases in grant support year by year for local government, especially towards the end of the Spending Review period.

Convener of the Finance Committee, Des McNulty MSP said:

“Our Committee welcomes the fact that the Executive has accepted many of our previous recommendations including cutting the number of process-based targets, streamlining the budget process and increasing spending on areas that support economic growth such as lifelong learning and transport.

“While we appreciate that the Scottish economy is affected by global factors, our Committee was concerned that the Scottish Executive doesn’t have a target for economic growth. Since economic growth is stated to be the Executive’s top priority, we believe that consideration should be given to setting some kind of strategic target, which need not be a percentage but could draw on comparative indicators.

“The Committee also has difficulty in reconciling claims made by the Executive in relation to the Efficient Government document. Our Committee expressed concern about the presentation of this information and argued that any comparisons made, for example with the Gershon review, should be on a like for like basis and over the same period.

“The Committee is concerned about the low levels of projected increases in local government AEF (Aggregate External Finance), especially towards the end of the Spending Review period. It also highlighted the fact that local government was treated differently in setting efficiency targets and argued for similar treatment in future. ”

The Parliament will debate the Committee’s report on 23 December 2004.

Background

The Draft Budget sets out the Executive’s spending plans for 2005-06. The Finance Committee is responsible for the overall scrutiny of the Budget and for co-ordinating responses from the Parliament’s subject committees on the spending plans for their respective portfolios.

Scrutiny of the Draft Budget constitutes the second stage of the annual three stage budget process. The next stage in the process will be for the Executive to bring forward its annual Budget Bill in January which will legislate for spending in 2005-06.

Scottish Parliament briefings on the budget process can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/research/subject/budget.htm

For further information, the media contact is:

Sally Coyne Tel: 0131 348 6269
email: sally.coyne@scottish.parliament.uk

Finance Committee contact information

For public information enquiries, contact: 0131 348 5000

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email: sp.info@scottish.parliament.uk

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