Scottish revenue interactions with UK government: FOI review

Information requested

FOI request 'GERS 2018-19, £63bn revenues, £45bn spent by Scottish government, Scottish local government, Scottish public bodies, £18bn remaining unaccounted for?'.

Failure to answer in detail and with accurate calculations my FIO request, for example:

1. "Scottish revenue returned to Scottish government, Scottish local government, Scottish public corporations by UK central government? Scottish revenue retained by UK central government?"

2.  The sum calculated in the Scottish Government reply fail to add up? £50,184m = Scottish revenue collected by UK reserved central government (includes non-savings non-dividend income tax) minus £11,486m = non-savings non-dividend income tax was returned to the Scottish Government leaves a difference of £38,698m not £40,128m = Scotland revenue retained by UK reserved and central government. (as alleged in this FOI reply).

I also understand that £25,897m is returned to Scottish Government via the Block Grant (happy to be corrected).

Response

I have completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for 'GERS 2018-19, £63bn revenues, £45bn spent by Scottish government, Scottish local government, Scottish public bodies, £18bn remaining unaccounted for?'.

Please accept my apologies for the length of time it has taken us to respond to your request for a review of your FOI request. We were experiencing particularly high volumes of Freedom of Information requests at the time of receipt.

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed, with modifications. I acknowledge that the original response to your request omitted some information which would have made the response easier to follow. In addition to the £50,184m of onshore Scottish tax revenue collected by the UK reserved central government, a further £1,430m of Scottish North Sea revenue is also collected, making a total of £51,614m.

This £1,430m explains the difference between the £38,698m, which you have calculated, and the £40,128m we provided in the original answer. Whilst the £40,128m was correct, We apologise for the omission of the North Sea revenue from the total revenue, which meant the numbers as presented were inconsistent.

You are correct that the Scottish Government receives a block grant from HM Treasury to fund public services in Scotland, although this is not directly linked to revenue raised in Scotland. In 2018-19, the block grant was £31,127m before adjustments, and £18,854m after tax and welfare adjustments. Further information is available at: Block Grant Transparency: July 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

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