Scottish Consolidated Fund and Loans Fund

Part of Orders of the Day — Scotland Bill – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 10 January 1978.

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Photo of Mr Douglas Crawford Mr Douglas Crawford , Perth and East Perthshire 12:00, 10 January 1978

I apologise, Mr. Murton. Our solution is that all moneys should be paid into a Scottish Treasury and that it should pay to Great George Street those moneys required for non-devolved purposes.

The hon. Member for Berwick and East Lothian made the point that we had all been asked by the Secretary of State to suggest solutions to this so-called intractable problem of taxation. I suggest that our solution has several beautiful and simple advantages. The first is that it is flexible. It would be able to cope with any diminution or increase in powers given to or taken away from the Scottish Assembly. In other words, it would be a self-controlling regulator.

The second advantage is that its application does not depend on the eventual details of what will or will not be devolved to the Assembly in the Bill. The third is that it will avoid any possible recriminations between Edinburgh and London over the size and timing of the negotiations of the block grant. The fourth is that it will tend to avoid the recruitment of armies of civil servants. The fifth, and most important from the SNP's point of view, is that it will pave the way for the financial settlement when full self-government comes.

Needless to say, the Secretary of State rejected that proposition as not being serious. Perhaps he does not like a simple solution to a simple problem. I assure him that the Scottish National Party is serious. I make this point because hon. Members have talked about the SNP disrupting the Assembly. We have heard suggestions about not putting up council rents and so on.

As has been pointed out, particularly by my hon. Friend the Member for Clackmannan and East Stirlingshire (Mr. Reid), the Scottish Assembly will take unto itself those powers that the Scottish people wish it to have—no more, no less. The House of Commons will not determine those powers. The finance required by the Scottish Assembly will be that needed to run matters devolved to the Assembly by the will of the majority of the people of Scotland.