• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• General Comments
• Justice
• Education and Children
• Enterprise and Lifelong Learning
• Health and Community Care
• Social Justice
• Transport
• Local Government
• Environment
• Further Information

Executive Summary

• UNISON Scotland supports the more open and transparent Budget process in Scotland.
• There are still concerns about the detail and presentation of information in the Budget documents provided for consultation, particularly in the Health & Community Care, Education and Children and Local Government sections.
• UNISON Scotland is concerned about the amount of additional funding in each department which is ring-fenced for specific projects rather than being allocated to local authorities to protect local jobs and services.
• UNISON Scotland opposes the use of PFI/PPP funding and particularly concerned about the lack information regarding PFI/PPP in the AER document.
• Education and Lifelong Learning - the cut in this department's budget announced as part of the spending reallocation in June 2001 concerns UNISON Scotland and it is not yet clear where these cuts will fall.
• Health and Community Care - UNISON Scotland welcomes the real term increase in health spending in 2001-02 and 2002-03. However, there are extra pressures being put on hard-pressed NHS staff due to increased public expectation about the speed, quality and range of services to be provided by the NHS.
• Free personal care - UNISON Scotland welcomes the announcement of additional funding for free personal care for older people and hopes that the increased spending will result in adequately funded, high quality services and suitably rewarded staff, irrespective of the sector that they work in.
• Social justice - UNISON Scotland notes with disappointment the continued allocation of resources to Community Ownership.
• Transport - UNISON Scotland is disappointed that the transport budget has been cut because of the ill-advised decision to award the roads maintenance contract to privatised contractors.

• Local government - the Scottish Executive should consider further relaxation in the controls placed on local authorities and the distribution formula and basis of local government finance still needs to be resolved.

• Environment - UNISON Scotland is very concerned that the budget for SEPA in 2001-02 and 2002-03 contains no real term increases and will make it very difficult for SEPA to properly fulfil its obligations. We also have significant concerns about the impact of the Water Services Bill

Introduction

This paper constitutes a response from UNISON Scotland to the Scottish Executive Annual Expenditure Report setting out spending priorities for 2001-02 to 2003-04. This response also comments, where appropriate, on the adjustments to the AER announced by the Finance Minister, Angus MacKay MSP, on June 28^th 2001.

UNISON is Scotland's largest trade union and represents staff in almost all of the areas highlighted in the spending plans.

General comments

AS UNISON Scotland made clear last year, we strongly support the more open and transparent Budget process in Scotland, which is one of the major benefits of devolution. However, we were critical of the lack of detail given in previous Budget consultation documents. Although this year's detailed document is better in some respects than that produced in 2000 it still contains only Level 3 information which is not sufficient, in our view, to allow full scrutiny of the Budget process. In particular, the sections on Health & Community Care, Enterprise & Lifelong Learning and Local Government fail to give a clear picture of the complex spending allocations made by these departments. There is still also confusion over the allocation of budgets to cross-cutting initiatives.

UNISON Scotland is particularly concerned about the lack information regarding PFI/PPP in the AER document. We note the comments of the Finance Committee on this issue, in their 10^th Report on stage 1 of the 2002/03 Budget Process, where they call for the re-instatement of the PFI/PPP table containing information on the capital spending and we support that view. We would also like far more detailed information about the revenue implications of PFI on the projected spends of each department in future years.

UNISON Scotland welcomes the 6% increase in this year's budget which is significantly in excess of the current rate of inflation and which will allow for real terms increases for most Departments. This will go some way towards addressing the damage to Scotland's public services from years of underfunding. However, it must be recognised that extra investment leads to increased public expectation about the level of service and that these expectations impact significantly on our members, as the frontline staff delivering services.

The reallocation of resources announced by Angus MacKay on 29^th June also provides welcome additional funding to health and education. We are, however, concerned at the reduction in the Enterprise & Lifelong Learning budget.

Justice

UNISON Scotland welcomes the significant real term increases for offender services and victim and witness support in 2001-02 and 2002-3 and fully support the move towards increased use of non-custodial sentences. The allocation of these additional resources should recognise the increased contribution made to the fight against crime by police civilian and court support staff, who remain amongst the lowest-paid public sector workers.

Education and children

UNISON Scotland welcomes the increases in central spending on these areas whilst recognising that the bulk of spending comes from the Local Government and Health budgets. We particularly welcome the £3.6 million to increase the number of qualified child-care workers. However, we remain concerned that the bulk of significant real-term increases come from directly controlled budgets, such as the Excellence Fund, presumably at the expense of increases to local government so that they can fund locally identified priorities and protect existing local services.

We are also concerned about the increasing amount of resources being wasted through PFI projects to refurbish schools, which often result in fewer classrooms, teaching areas and sports facilities in order to reduce costs to prove the case for PFI rather than public sector funding.

Enterprise and Lifelong Learning

UNISON Scotland is pleased that significant additional funding is to be provided to help establish Careers Scotland. We do have a range of concerns regarding these services which are set out in our submission on this issue.

We are concerned that there is no real term increase in funding for further and higher education in 2002-03. However, as was the case last year, the lack of detail in the spending for Education and Lifelong Learning makes any more constructive comment impossible.

Health and Community Care

UNISON Scotland welcomes the real term increase in health spending in 2001-02 and 2002-03 which, on top of last year's increased allocation, will help continue to rebuild the NHS in Scotland after many years of crippling under-investment. However, seen in the context of the scale of the resources needed, the increased funding so far to hospital and community services has been relatively modest.

Much of the increased funding is swallowed up by the increased cost of new treatments and medical advances. This is exacerbated by increased public expectation about the speed, quality and range of services to be provided by the NHS. In addition, as we remarked last year, resources are still being squandered through the inefficient use of the Private Finance Initiative, with projects totalling more than £500 million announced so far. The on-going cost implications of these projects for NHS Scotland are not addressed in the Budget document. We have set out our concerns on this issue in more detail in our evidence to the Finance Committee Inquiry on PPP/PFI.

With the imminent re-organisation of the health trusts UNISON Scotland would expect an increase in basic core funding which is not ring-fenced to meet specific objectives. It is not clear from the Budget document whether the increased Arbuthnott allocations to Health Boards include ring-fenced funding.

In fact, the presentation of health and community spending is still confused and lacks detail. UNISON Scotland notes and agrees with the comments of the Health Committee of the Scottish Parliament in this respect, when it calls for greater disaggregation of the large spending allocations within the health budget plans and also calls for the document to show how priorities are being implemented by local Health Boards. Accountability within the NHS in Scotland is obviously still a major issue.

In respect of the additional spending allocation announced by the Finance Minister due to the reallocation of spending priorities, UNISON Scotland notes that the bulk of the additional funding for health is for providing free personal care. UNISON Scotland welcomes free personal care for older people and hopes that the increased spending will result in adequately funded, high quality services and suitably rewarded staff, irrespective of the sector that they work in.

Social justice

We note the continued allocation of resources to Community Ownership, presumably at the expense of other local government funding to help protect local jobs and services. UNISON Scotland strongly opposes this scheme and believes that the resources allocated to it could be better directed.

UNISON Scotland welcomes the funding for the Warm Deal and supports the Executive in its aim of eradicating fuel poverty in Scotland. However, there is a need for a comprehensive strategy to address fuel poverty and we have set out proposals in our recent response to the fuel poverty consultation draft.

The greater detail given for Social Inclusion funding in this section of the document is very welcome. Again, however, UNISON Scotland has reservations about such large sums of money being provided at the expense of direct local government funding.

We also have concerns about the sustainable long-term funding of social inclusion projects directly funded by the Scottish Executive at the outset but with no long-term assurances about funding, leaving them at the mercy of hard-pressed local government budgets in future years.

Transport

UNISON Scotland welcomes the concessionary fares scheme as the first step towards creating a Scotland-wide concessionary fares plan for older and disadvantaged people.

UNISON Scotland is very disappointed that the transport budget has been cut because of the ill-advised decision to award the roads maintenance contract to privatised contractors. Such a short-term saving has been made at the expense of the level of service given to local council-tax payers and our members' pay and conditions. This is an example of putting crude cost-cutting ahead of high quality public services.

The cut will also result in a continued decline in the roads network as both trunk and council roads need substantial investment. To give just one example, the Highland Council budget allows for resurfacing roads once every 108 years.

Local Government

UNISON Scotland welcomes the move towards three year budgeting for local government and the provision for general increases in pay and prices (although there is still a lack of detail about the underlying assumptions upon which this funding is based). Although the increases in capital spending consents are welcome, UNISON Scotland has concerns about the revenue implications of such consents in order to service loans and supports CoSLA's call for capital spend to be funded by grants rather than consents.

UNISON Scotland is also still of the view that the Scottish Executive should consider further relaxation in the controls placed on local authorities, rather than continuing to increase the amount of funding that is ring-fenced. Headline increases in expenditure can mislead the public and hides real cuts in some services.

UNISON Scotland believes that of spending the distribution formula still needs to be resolved. In addition there is still an urgent need to review the basis of local government finance. The allocation of business rate revenue discriminates against urban areas which generate the most revenue but do not see an equitable share of resources. For example, Glasgow collects £264m in business rates yet only receives £201m back under the current arrangements.

Environment

UNISON Scotland is very concerned that the budget for SEPA in 2001-02 and 2002-03 contains no real term increases will make it very difficult for SEPA to properly fulfil its obligations under the various EU directives which have to be implemented and the additional responsibilities it was given last year, such as the Flood Warning System. This is particularly worrying, given the context of inadequate funding over recent years and the increased role for the private sector in water and wastewater services.

UNISON Scotland has significant concerns about the impact of the Water Services Bill and the proposed amalgamation of the three Scottish Water Authorities on the level of service and the effect on our members' jobs, as detailed in our response to the Bill. UNISON Scotland firmly believes that there can be no level financial playing field with multi-national competitors in England unless there is equivalent debt write off and public investment in the current system. UNISON Scotland rejects the extensive use of PPP/PFI schemes which are unnecessary and costly to the taxpayer.

For Further Information Please Contact:

Matt Smith, Scottish Secretary
UNISONScotland
UNISON House
14, West Campbell Street,
Glasgow G2 6RX
Tel 0141-332 0006 Fax 0141 342 2835
e-mail matt.smith@unison.co.uk

http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk

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