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Communications
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| Scotland's Budget 2000 Briefing | |||||
| This briefing explains the Scottish Executive's budget process and where the money will be spent. It also outlines UNISON Scotland's response to the Scottish Executive's spending plans and how we are consulting over next years budget. Comments and ideas from branches and members would be welcomed and can be directed to Dave Watson at the address below. |
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Introduction The Scottish
Parliament is currently considering its first Budget Bill. This
Bill sets out how the Scottish Executive proposes to spend the
block grant agreed with the UK Treasury in 2000/01. In a normal financial year there will be three stages:
As the Scottish Parliament only started on 1 July the consultation process for this year had to be shortened starting at stage 2. How is the Money spent The total
budget for 2000/01 is £16,655m. This constitutes a 3% increase
on the previous year. As inflation is currently 1.8% this represents
a real term increase in expenditure. However, there are gainers
and losers. The Executive
claims a 3.6% increase in spending on local government taking
the total spend to £6,727m. However, the published plans
show an increase of only 2.4%. Within this budget education and
social work gain at the expense of other services including environmental
health, cleansing and leisure. No specific provision has been
made for pay or any recognition of the single status agreement. The headline 3.35% increase looks like a modest rise in expenditure taking the total spend to £5,246m. However, hospitals and community services only get a 2.11% increase. Most of the increase goes on the drugs bill, up 10.48%. Given the financial state of many NHS Trusts the NHSiS needs a much more substantial increase in spending. UNISON's Response Apart from commenting on individual budgets UNISON has strongly criticised the presentation of the spending plans. Children & Education This budget totalling £384m covers mainly small centrally funded initiatives. The main budget is included in local government. Communities Again this budget (£663m) covers mostly central initiatives. A large increase for New Housing Partnerships at the expense of local authority housing. A welcome increase in the Warm Deal and Social Inclusion funding. Enterprise & Life Long Learning An overall real term cut in expenditure down to £1875m although not in the mainstream HE and FE sectors. An unwelcome cut in Careers Service funding. Justice This budget
is being reduced to £535m although criminal justice social
work services are protected from these cuts. The increase in resources to £554m goes mostly to farmers under the CAP. Scotland spends as much on supporting farms as we do on further education. Transport An overall
cut down to £283m although the roads programme is protected. Support for the water industry is being cut by £7m and this is reflected in the recent increase in water charges. As with Transport the additional cost of PFI eats into this budget. It is a theme in many of these budgets that money is held back for centrally funded initiatives at the expense of services administered locally. The published documents give only a superficial view of the Scottish Executive's spending plans. The political `spin' frequently does not match with the hard figures. If financial decisions are "to be shared with the people of Scotland" as the Executive claims then greater detail and clarity is required. Several of UNISON's criticisms were supported by the Scottish Parliament Finance Committee in their submission. Budget 2001/02 The 1st stage consultation on next years budget will begin shortly. UNISON's Scottish Committee has established a number of Policy Pools which will look at each budget in detail and the Public Finance Policy pool will pull together the UNISON Scotland response. Comments and ideas from branches and members would be welcomed and can be directed to Dave Watson at the address below. Further Information The full UNISON Scotland response can be viewed by clicking here The Scottish Executive
consultation document "Spending Plans for Scotland"
can be accessed at:
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