Letters / Schoolboy error
At the risk of becoming a serial correspondent on financial matters, I fear I must correct the schoolboy error in John Tulloch of Arrochar’s letter on behalf of Wir Shetland (Sucking shetland dry; SN, 11/02/16)
Mr Tulloch’s statement that the reduction in the SIC’s funding settlement “has been imposed despite an increase in Holyrood’s own funding” is playing rather fast and loose with the figures. Or rather it is political spin, or in plain language: mince.
The 85 per cent of the Scottish Government’s budget which funds local government, the NHS, ferries etc. the Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) which is allocated via the Block Grant to Scotland, has been reduced by -1.0 per cent in real terms between 2015/16 and 2016/17 and by a cumulative -9.6 per cent between 2010/11 and 2016/17. A near 10 per cent reduction is not an ‘increase’ (See table 1.01 in the draft budget)
The 15 per cent or so of the Scottish Government’s budget that falls into what is known as Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) has increased, because Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) is now administering the pensions of police and firefighters, in addition to its previous responsibilities for teachers and NHS staff.
The increase in AME makes the overall budget look as though it has increased, but AME is NOT under the direct control of the Scottish Government. Only DEL is – and it has been cut. For anyone interested in the detail it is explained here.
It may have escaped John’s notice but the tax revenues from all of Scotland, including Shetland, and including the famed ‘extra-regio territories’ – the continental shelf, is not collected by Holyrood, but by his chums in the UK Treasury.
Given that only a proportion of tax revenues so collected actually find their way back north again, and given that this situation has pertained for 130 years that we know of, if anyone is sucking Shetland dry, it is the UK.
Derick Tulloch
Stirlingshire
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