Questions concerning Scottish Government budget and Barnett consequentials: FOI release

Information requested

1. What share of £8.2 billion guaranteed to the Scottish budget by the UK Government has each portfolio within the Scottish Government received to date.

2. How much of the £8.2 billion guaranteed to the Scottish budget by the UK Government has been allocated and how much is yet to be allocated.

3. Any documents produced by the Scottish government that details where Barnett consequentials delivered to the Scottish Government in 2020-21 have been /are being spent.

Response

As you are aware, to date, the UK Government has indicated that it will allocate £8.2 billion of additional funding to the Scottish Government in respect of the Covid pandemic. £3,063m of this was allocated to the Scottish Government at the UK Main Estimates in May, with the remainder due to be added at the UK Supplementary early next year.

The Scottish Government has, so far, revised its budget at 2 points during the year. Firstly, the Summer Budget Revision Summer Budget Revision 2020 to 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). This budget revision was exceptionally introduced this year, on 27 May, to provide the Scottish Parliament with the opportunity to scrutinise the spending decisions made to that point in time. It included the allocation of just over £4 billion in funding for the Covid response:-

• This total included a comprehensive £2.3 billion package of support for business, a £620 million boost for health services and £350 million funds for communities
• The spending was largely funded by a consequential rise in the block grant of more than £3.5 billion resulting from extra UK Government COVID-19 spending, and £112 million of consequentials received following the last UK Budget.
• A further £255 million was reprioritised from within existing departmental budgets, including where Covid-19 has had an unavoidable impact on planned spending.

A further Autumn Budget Revision was published on 24 September Autumn budget revision 2020 to 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). This revision, allocated a further £2.5 billion to Covid related measures:-

• An additional £1.8 billion in funding was allocated to Health and Social Care. This is on top of the £620 million additional Health funding which was allocated at Summer Budget Revision, meaning over £2.4 billion of financial support has been provided to the NHS to support its ongoing Covid-19 support.
• £222 million of additional resource funding was allocated to support our bus, rail and local transport operators.
• £190 million in additional support was provided for business and the arts.
• £119 million was added to the Education and Skills budget as part of the Education Recovery package and also ensured free school meals were continued over the course of the Summer Holidays.
• The budget revision also allocated capital expenditure for the economic recovery stimulus package announced by the Cabinet Secretary of Finance in June.
• This is being funded through £2.4 billion of Barnett consequentials, £142 million of reprioritisation of existing expenditure, and £30m of Scotland Reserve drawdowns.

Both of these budget revisions have been approved by the Scottish Parliament following a full scrutiny process by the Finance and Constitution Committee.

As you will appreciate Budget Revisions are necessarily a snapshot of the position at that time and this is a continually evolving picture. Additional details on the ongoing allocation of the remaining funding for the response to the Covid-19 emergency (circa £1,700 million) will be set out in the Spring Budget Revision on 4 February 2021.

 

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