No more emergency Budget revisions due to pay awards, Shona Robison promises
For the last three years the Scottish Government has been forced to make in-year adjustments to its Budget.
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Your support makes all the difference.The Scottish Government will not make any more emergency in-year Budget revisions, Finance Secretary Shona Robison has promised.
She said her Government’s relationship with the Treasury has improved to the point where events like public sector pay awards will no longer have to be financed by hasty cuts in other portfolios.
For the last three years, the Scottish Government has been forced to make in-year adjustments to a Budget which MSPs had approved months previously.
In the most recent case, Ms Robison had to announce cuts of up to £500 million to fund public sector pay deals with unions which were higher than anticipated.
The relationship and the communication with the Treasury has transformed over the last few months and that's to be welcomed
On Wednesday, Ms Robison told MSPs she wants to put public sector pay on a “sustainable footing” with a flexible increase of 9% above inflation over the next three years.
Speaking to journalists after her annual Budget announcement on Wednesday, Ms Robison was asked if this would mean no more emergency revisions during the next financial year.
She told the PA news agency: “We’re not going to have any emergency Budget measures.
“Those were driven because of the lack of funding that we had previously and the lack of certainty from the previous UK Government about the level of funding we would have.
“The relationship and the communication with the Treasury has transformed over the last few months and that’s to be welcomed.”
Ms Robison said she hoped to have “good relationships” with trade unions representing public sector workers.
She was also asked about the future of the Government’s prospectus papers on Scottish independence, known as the Building a New Scotland series.
Her Budget document does not specify any funding for the series.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats, potential partners for the SNP in the Budget negotiations, have said they will not consent to any spending on promoting independence.
The Finance Secretary said an SNP government would always make the case for independence, adding: “We’ll continue to set out why we think that and we’ll continue to set out the limitations of the current constitutional arrangements.”
Pressed on whether a decision had been made on the future of the papers, she said: “That will complete, the Building a New Scotland series is almost at the end of the process.
“That will continue to be completed in due course. But the spend I have set out today in the Budget is spend on our public services, our frontline services, and that’s something I hope will gain the support of members across this Parliament.”
The Finance Secretary also said her announcement of income tax freezes until 2026 aimed to give taxpayers “certainty” rather than an adjustment to changes in taxpayer behaviour.