The Scottish Consolidated Fund Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

Notes to the Accounts

1. Basis of accounting

In accordance with Section 19(2) of the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000, these accounts are prepared on a cash basis.

2. Receipts from the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland

These receipts are paid into the Scottish Consolidated Fund under Section 64(2) of the Scotland Act 1998.

3. Scottish Income Tax

The Scotland Act 2012 Section 25 empowers the Scottish Parliament to set a Scottish Rate of Income Tax (SRIT) for Scottish taxpayers with effect from 6 April 2016. Income tax revenues derived from Scottish taxpayers were assigned to the Scottish Administration commencing in

2016-17. During the year 2021-22, £11,642 million of assigned income tax was paid into the Scottish Consolidated Fund (2020-21 £11,424 million).

4. Receipts from Devolved Taxes

During the year 2021-22, Revenue Scotland paid over £874 million to the Scottish Consolidated Fund in respect of the two Devolved Taxes.

	2021-22	2020-21
	£000	£000
Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT)	752,574	450,490
Scottish Landfill Tax (SLFT)	121,578	156,281
Total Devolved Taxes	874,152	606,771

5. Borrowing by Scottish Ministers

Under Section 32 of the Scotland Act 2012, as amended by Scotland Act 2016 Section 20, additional borrowing powers were conferred on Scottish Ministers with effect from 1 April 2015. Any sums borrowed and repaid under these provisions must be done via the Scottish Consolidated Fund and hence be reflected in these accounts. The first sums borrowed from the NLF were received by the SCF in 2017-18. A summary of the borrowing position is set out as follows:

At 31 March 2022	Principal	Accrued Interest	Total
	£'000	£'000	£'000
At 1 April 2021	1,426,690	2,153	1,428,843
New borrowing	469,000	-	469,000
Interest incurred	-	15,180	15,180
Repayments	(80,395)	-	(80,395)
Interest paid	-	(14,630)	(14,630)
At 31 March 2022	1,815,295	2,703	1,817,998

Repayments of principal and interest in 2021-22 totalled £95.025 million (2020-21 £64.469 million).

At 31 March 2021	Principal	Accrued Interest	Total
	£'000	£'000	£'000
At 1 April 2020	1,071,633	1,974	1,073,607
New borrowing	407,000	-	407,000
Interest incurred	-	12,705	12,705
Repayments	(51,943)	-	(51,943)
Interest paid	-	(12,526)	(12,526)
At 31 March 2021	1,426,690	2,153	1,428,843

The repayment of borrowing is scheduled as follows:

At 31 March 2022	Principal	Interest	Total
	£'000	£'000	£'000
Less than 1 year	139,282	20,318	159,600
1 – 5 years	690,171	66,779	756,950
More than 5 years	985,843	103,286	1,089,129
Total	1,815,296	190,383	2,005,679

At 31 March 2021	Principal	Interest	Total
	£'000	£'000	£'000
Less than 1 year	80,394	14,631	95,025
1 – 5 years	425,675	51,715	477,390
More than 5 years	920,621	99,578	1,020,199
Total	1,426,690	165,924	1,592,614

Details of loans taken out are as follows:

At 31 March 2022

Financial year	Category	Term (years)	Amount borrowed Principal	Amount outstanding Principal
			£'000	£'000
2017-18	Capital	25	450,000	399,055
2018-19	Capital	10	250,000	189,703
2019-20	Capital	20	200,000	181,061
2019-20	Capital	25	190,000	179,334
2019-20	Capital	25	15,000	14,178
2020-21	Capital	25	150,000	147,399
2020-21	Resource	5	207,000	186,421
2020-21	Capital	25	50,000	49,145
2021-22	Capital	20	150,000	150,000
2021-22	Resource	5	319,000	319,000
Total			1,981,000	1,815,296

At 31 March 2021

Financial year	Category	Term (years)	Amount borrowed Principal	Amount outstanding Principal
			£'000	£'000
2017-18	Capital	25	450,000	413,957
2018-19	Capital	10	250,000	213,993
2019-20	Capital	20	200,000	190,559
2019-20	Capital	25	190,000	186,454
2019-20	Capital	25	15,000	14,727
2020-21	Capital	25	150,000	150,000
2020-21	Resource	5	207,000	207,000
2020-21	Capital	25	50,000	50,000
Total			1,512,000	1,426,690

More details on Scottish Government borrowing can be found in the Fiscal Framework Outturn^[1] Report most recently published in September 2022.

6. Voluntary donations

During 2020-21, a procedure was instituted in co-ordination with the UK Government and the other Devolved Administrations to allow businesses in receipt of non-domestic rates relief to voluntarily repay some or all of that relief. Businesses who chose to do so in Scotland were directed to make repayments into the Fund. Voluntary donations totalling £1.02 million were received in 2021-22 (2020-21 £125.13 million).

7. Crown Estate surplus

Under the provisions of Section 36 of the Scotland Act 2016, the Crown Estate Transfer Scheme 2017 transferred the existing Scottish functions of the Crown Estate Commissioners to Scottish Ministers. A new body, Crown Estate Scotland, was established to manage those functions. All revenue surpluses generated by Crown Estate Scotland are paid into the Scottish Consolidated Fund with effect from 2017-18. The surplus paid into the Fund in 2021-22 amounted to £13.5 million (2020-21 £9.97 million).

8. Fines, forfeitures and fixed penalties

The Scotland Act 1998 (Designation of Receipts) (Amendment) Order 2017, issued under the provisions of Section 67 of the Scotland Act 2016, removes fines forfeitures and fixed penalties receipts from their previous classification as designated receipts under the Scotland Act 1998 (Designation of Receipts) Order 2009.

In 2021-22, the total of fines, forfeitures and fixed penalties paid into the SCF was £21.6 million (2020-21 £14.3 million).

9. Receipt from the Registers of Scotland

Approval was given by the Scottish Parliament of the Section 17 Order under the Public Services Reform Act on 18 March 2020, coming into force on 31 March 2020, allowing for the repeal of Section 9 of the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000, and the transfer of reserves from Registers of Scotland. Under these provisions, £50 million was transferred to the Scottish Consolidated Fund by the Registers of Scotland in 2019-20, £8.254 million in 2020-21 and £17 million in 2021-22, representing the balance of retained earnings payable to the Fund.

10. Receipts from and payments to the UK Contingencies Fund

The Contingencies Fund is used to finance payments for urgent services in anticipation of UK Parliamentary provision for those services becoming available, and to provide funds required temporarily by government departments for necessary working balances, or to meet other temporary cash deficiencies.

A successful application was made for a short-term Contingencies Fund advance of £12,000 million based on the forecast funding required in November 2021, being the excess of funding required over the remaining UK Mains Estimate Budget cash requirement (available cash funding limit) for Scotland. An increase in the Scotland cash requirement was included in the UK Spring Supplementary Budget, which became available after the relevant legislation received Royal Assent in mid-March. Once the additional Spring Supplementary cash requirement became available, the Contingencies Fund advance was repaid via the Fund and equivalent funding drawn down from the UK Exchequer. The transactions involved are as follows:

	2021-22
	£000
Receipts
Received from Contingencies Fund 1 November 2021	12,000,000
Received from Scottish Government 21 March 2022	11,058,119
	23,058,119
Payments
Paid to Scottish Government 21 March 2022	11,058,119
Repaid to Contingencies Fund 21 March 2022	12,000,000
	23,058,119

	2020-21
	£000
Receipts
Received from Contingencies Fund 1 March 2021	3,537,561
Received from Scottish Government 24 March 2021	3,537,561
	7,075,122
Payments
Paid to Scottish Government 1 March 2021	3,537,561
Repaid to Contingencies Fund 24 March 2021	3,537,561
	7,075,122

11. Receipts for the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer

The Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer (QLTR) is the Crown's representative in Scotland, and is responsible for dealing with ownerless property ("bona vacantia"). Regulation of the activities of the QLTR was transferred to Scottish Ministers by Schedule 8 Paragraph 1 of the Scotland Act 1998. Bona vacantia covers assets of dissolved companies, assets of missing persons and lost and abandoned property. The realised value of such assets is paid by the QLTR into the SCF. The balance of Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer receipts paid into the Fund is as follows:

	2021-22	2020-21
	£000	£000
Balance in the SCF at 1 April	1,022	1,380
Receipts in the period	7,030	4,642
Payments in the period	-	(5,000)
Balance in the SCF at 31 March	8,052	1,022

QLTR receipts continue to be categorised under the heading of receipts not authorised to be used to support expenditure in the Income and Expenditure Account. £5 million originally earmarked for the Scottish Budget in 2021-22 was not utilised and therefore no drawdowns from cumulative QLTR balances took place in 2021-22.

This balance is therefore available to support Scottish Administration expenditure in subsequent years

12. Analysis of other receipts not authorised to be used to support expenditure

As provided for in Section 64(3) of the Scotland Act 1998 (and certain other legislative provisions) all sums received by members of the Scottish Administration (and certain other bodies) are to be paid into the Scottish Consolidated Fund as Consolidated Fund Extra Receipts (CFERs) unless there are alternative statutory provisions. In practice, most of the receipts of the bodies concerned were authorised to be used to support expenditure under the Budget Act and the Budget Orders.

The Scotland Act 1998 (Designation of Receipts) Order 2009 designates certain receipts (designated receipts) and provides that sums equivalent to these are to be paid to the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland, in practice for paying into the UK Consolidated Fund. As detailed in note 8, the 2009 Order was amended with effect from 2017-18 to remove a category of receipts (fines, forfeitures and fixed penalties) from classification as designated receipts.

The majority of the receipts paid into the Fund in 2021-22 relate to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service. Of these, £7.508 million relate to amounts recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act (see Note 15) and £313,000 to amounts recovered under the Victim Surcharge provision (see Note 16). CFER receipts surrendered to the Fund in previous years by Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service were repaid during 2021-22 totalling £23,000.

2021-22	Receipts paid into Fund during period	Receipts classed as Designated
	£000	£000
Rural Economy	165	165
Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service	4,998
Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service	4,059	-
Assessor's Office	1,146	-
	10,368	165
Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service	(23)	-
Total	10,345	165

2020-21	Receipts paid into Fund during period	Receipts classed as Designated
	£000	£000
Rural Economy	184	182
Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service	5,533	-
Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service	6,766	-
Total	12,483	182

During 2021-22, CFER payments were paid to Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland of £165,000.

13. Payments authorised under the Budget Acts

For the period of this account the Scottish Parliament approved: Budget (Scotland) Act 2020 (ASP 5) as amended by the Budget (Scotland) Act Amendment Regulations 2020 (SSI 2020/197), the Budget (Scotland) Act Amendment (No 2) Regulations 2020 (SSI 2020/348) and the Budget (Scotland) Act 2020 Amendment Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/163).

These Orders appropriate sums out of the Scottish Consolidated Fund for the financial year ending 31 March 2022 for the purposes of meeting expenditure in that year in connection with the functions for which expenditure is, by virtue of the Scotland Act 1998 and provisions made under it, payable out of that fund during the year.

2021-22	£000	£000
Scottish Government and indirectly funded bodies	48,609,206
Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Services	167,400
Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service	143,500
Food Standards Scotland	22,100
Registers of Scotland	-
Scottish Administration		48,942,206
The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body	104,700
Audit Scotland	10,785	115,485
Total Paid		49,057,691

2020-21	£000	£000
Scottish Government and indirectly funded bodies	48,054,638
Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Services	156,500
Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service	126,262
Food Standards Scotland	17,490
Registers of Scotland	15,863
Scottish Administration		48,370,753
The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body	94,900
Audit Scotland	8,500	103,400
Total Paid		48,474,153

In 2021-22, the Fund was required by statute to pay funding directly to three recipients, the Scottish Administration, the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body and Audit Scotland. These bodies are referred to as directly funded bodies. Funding paid to the Scottish Government in respect of the Scottish Administration includes funding paid by the Scottish Government to other Scottish public sector bodies. These are referred to as indirectly funded bodies. Registers of Scotland became an indirectly funded body with effect from 2020-21 (see Note 9).

14. Judicial Salaries

Receipts and Payments Account

For the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022

Receipts	2021-22	2020-21
	£000	£000
Received from the SCF	37,200	36,477
Income from recovery of overpayments	2	-
Reimbursement of salary costs	183	367
Total Receipts	37,385	36,844

Payments	2021-22	2020-21
	£000	£000
Salary Costs	36,598	34,890
Bank Charges	1	1
Total Payments	36,599	34,891
Surplus / (Deficit) for the Period	786	1,953

Summary of the balance held at the Government Banking Service:

Balance brought forward from previous year	2,068	115
Surplus/(deficit) of receipts over payments for the year	786	1,953
Balance carried forward	2,854	2,068

A member of the judiciary took up a post as chair of an inquiry in 2016-17, and has continued in post during 2021-22 and the member's salary costs continued to be charged to the Fund. The inquiry reimbursed the Fund for the member's salary costs commensurate with the time spent on inquiry business, totalling £183,000 (2020-21 £367,000).

The salaries of the judiciary are a matter for the UK Government. Information on salaries payable is set out in a report by the Senior Salaries Review Body. The 2022 report is available online.^[2]

During 2021-22 the number of paid judiciary in post at 31 March 2022 was:

Judges (Senators of the College of Justice)	30.5 FTE
Sheriffs Principal	6 FTE
Sheriffs	114.2 FTE
Summary Sheriffs	42.5 FTE
Members of Lands Tribunal Scotland	1.8 FTE
Chair of the Scottish Land Court	1 FTE
Deputy Chair of the Scottish Land Court	0.8 FTE
Members of the Scottish Land Court	1.4 FTE

Comparative figures for 2020-21, the number of paid judiciary in post at 31 March 2021, are:

Judges (Senators of the College of Justice)	34.5 FTE
Sheriffs Principal	6 FTE
Sheriffs	115.6 FTE
Summary Sheriffs	39.6 FTE
Members of Lands Tribunal Scotland	1.8 FTE
Chair of the Scottish Land Court	1 FTE
Deputy Chair of the Scottish Land Court	0.8 FTE
Members of the Scottish Land Court	1.4 FTE

15. Proceeds of Crime receipts

During 2021-22, a total of £6.781 million (2020-21 £5.215 million) was repaid to the Scottish Government in respect of Proceeds of Crime initially surrendered to the Scottish Consolidated Fund. The net balance of Proceeds of Crime receipts paid into the Fund is as follows:

	2021-22	2020-21
	£000	£000
Balance in the SCF at 1 April	10,332	6,072
Receipts to the SCF in the period	7,508	9,475
Payments to the Scottish Government in the period	(6,781)	(5,215)
Balance in the SCF at 31 March	11,059	10,332

16. Victim Surcharge receipts

The Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2014 includes powers to introduce a Victim Surcharge, payable by offenders convicted of specified offences. The Victim Surcharge (Scotland) Regulations 2019 set up a Victim Surcharge Fund, and set out procedures for its administration, including the collection and allocation of funds. Victim Surcharges receipts were paid into the SCF commencing in 2020-21, where they are held pending payment to the Scottish Government for allocation. Receipts totalling £313,000 were paid into the SCF during 2021-22, and payments totalling £157,000 were made. The balance on the Victim Surcharge Fund at 31 March 2022 is £304,552.

17. Analysis of the balance held at the Scottish Consolidated Fund

	2021-22	2020-21
	£000	£000
Sums due to funded bodies not yet paid	189,611	193,100
Designated receipts not yet paid to UKCF	0	1
Scotland Reserve	0	76,470
Lochaber Fee Income Scotland	0	7,700
QLTR	8,052	1,022
General SCF Reserve	6,978	8,980
Balance held at the SCF at 31 March	204,640	287,273

The power to create a Scotland Reserve is part of the agreement between the Scottish Government and the United Kingdom Government on the Scottish Government's fiscal framework dated February 2016 ("the Fiscal Framework") to allow a reserve to be built up when tax revenues are higher than forecast in order to smooth spending and manage tax revenue volatility. £126.47 million was transferred to the Reserve in 2019-20, which was reduced by £50 million in 2020-21. The remaining balance of £76.47 million was utilised in year.

The cash balance of the Scotland Reserve in the Scottish Consolidated Fund does not represent the full Scotland Reserve balance available to support Scottish Government expenditure. Full details of this can be found in the Fiscal Framework Outturn report.

Details of the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer balance held in the Fund and its derivation are set out in Note 11.

The sums returned by funded bodies are an accumulation of funding paid out to bodies directly funded by the Scottish Consolidated Fund over a number of years, parts of which these bodies have elected to repay into the Fund.

The balance on the General Reserve of the Scottish Consolidated Fund does not necessarily represent an amount available for appropriation by a Budget Act or other means.