WIREDGOV

Scottish Government Provisional Outturn 2014-15 presented to Scottish Parliament.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney yesterday published Scottish Government provisional spending for financial year 2014-15.

Since 2010-11, the Scottish Government has managed a 25% cut to the capital budget as part of dealing with the near 9% real terms decline in public spending, while prioritising support to the economy and investing in public services.

Under the current devolution settlement, the Scottish Parliament is not allowed to overspend its budget, so limited carry forwards are a common and prudent feature of the annual budget process to ensure the budget is allocated exactly and to the correct areas.

Mr Swinney told MSPs that, in line with Scottish Government plans, the amount of resource budget carried over from last year into this year is £151 million. In addition, £41 million of capital budget will be carried over after resources were freed up as a result of a range of changes within the budget including savings of £5.6 million on Glasgow’s Fastlink Project and £16 million in housing capital receipts. Overall, including Financial Transactions, this means that the Scottish Government will carry forward 0.7 per cent of the total 2014-15 HM Treasury budgets.

Mr Swinney also reported on the Provisional Outturn figures for non-cash budgets. These budgets are generally demand-led and cannot be reallocated to other priorities.

The Deputy First Minister John Swinney Said yesterday:

“The 2014-15 provisional outturn figures demonstrate once again the firm grip that this Government has on Scotland’s public finances.

"Today’s outturn figures must be set in the context of continued UK Government reductions to the Scottish budget, which is already facing a 9% real terms reduction over the current spending review period.

“We face the prospect of further budget reductions from the UK Government in future years and there is real concern about the impact of the Chancellor’s recently announced further budget reductions in 2015-16.

“It is unacceptable for reductions to be imposed to a budget already agreed by the Scottish Parliament. However, the scale of these imposed future challenges could require us to tackle some of the Chancellor’s 2015-16 budget reductions this financial year.

“Attempting to spend the exact amount contained within the Budget carries a considerably increased, and difficult to justify risk, of breaching the Budget cap. My intention is that the full £151 million in resource funding and £41 million in capital funding – the equivalent of around 0.7% of the total 2014-15 HM Treasury budget – will be carried forward to ensure there is no loss of spending power to the Scottish Parliament and that the most vulnerable in Scotland are protected from the UK cuts.

“While I utterly disagree with the decision the Chancellor has taken, I intend to take as flexible an approach as possible to address his cuts, in order to minimise their impact to the people of Scotland. The Scottish Government will do everything possible to mitigate the impact of these cuts and we will continue to focus on our priorities of growing the economy, protecting public services and tackling inequality.”