Government Expenditure and Revenue in Scotland (GERS): 2018 to 2019 question: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for:

Scottish Government + Scottish Local Government + Scottish Public Corporation expenditure

£44,770 Table 3.2
£44,717 Table 3.8

Which of the above are correct?

Response

Information on devolved revenue and expenditure is set out in Chapter 4 of GERS. As set out in Table 4.8, devolved expenditure including housing benefit was £44,717 million in 2018-19, consistent with Table 3.8.

In Table 3.2, which analyses annual changes in current and capital spend by different bodies, a small amount of debt interest expenditure by Scottish Local Authorities is included. Debt interest payments made by Scottish Local Authorities are to other public bodies such as the Public Works Loan Board. In Tables 3.8 and 4.8, these payments are consolidated out, and no debt interest spending is recorded for devolved expenditure on services.

I appreciate that this distinction is not clear from the current tables, and we will look to improve this presentation in future.

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