– in the Scottish Parliament at on 4 March 2021.
John Mason
Scottish National Party
5. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to the United Kingdom budget. (S5F-04877)
Nicola Sturgeon
Scottish National Party
Y esterday’s delayed budget confirmed additional net funding of £1.175 billion to the Scottish budget, which is welcome. The Majority of that has already been factored into our budget proposals, which are currently under consideration by the Parliament.
We welcome some of the individual announcements—the extension of the furlough scheme and self-employed support—but the Chancellor of the exchequer’s business support measures are significantly less generous than those that the Government proposes. Notably, there is little further funding to support health recovery or any significant new help for families in need. The confirmation that the levelling-up fund will indeed undermine the devolution settlement is particularly unwelcome. Nevertheless, we will work with those implications to build—I hope—consensus in the chamber for our budget bill in the coming days.
John Mason
Scottish National Party
The Trades Union Congress has said that the Chancellor
“is gambling with the recovery.”
More specifically, our capital budget has been cut and was not restored yesterday. Can the First Minister say anything about that? It seems to me that capital investment—housing and other things—both creates jobs and gives us assets.
The First Minister:
John Mason is right on that point. Capital spending is, of course, key to economic recovery. As a result of yesterday’s budget, our capital grant for 2021-22 remains lower than it was in 2020-21, which is disappointing because it is one of the key levers that we have to support recovery through investment in infrastructure.
As we set out in our budget, the Scottish Government is doing what it can to mitigate that cut. We have maximised capital borrowing and drawn down £200 million of financial transaction capital from the Scottish reserve, which reduces the impact of the 66 per cent cut in financial transaction budget that was received from the UK Government spending review. We are doing what we can to mitigate it, but the cut in capital funding is deeply regrettable and will have consequences for the pace of economic recovery.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
The chancellor of the exchequer is the government's chief financial minister and as such is responsible for raising government revenue through taxation or borrowing and for controlling overall government spending.
The chancellor's plans for the economy are delivered to the House of Commons every year in the Budget speech.
The chancellor is the most senior figure at the Treasury, even though the prime minister holds an additional title of 'First Lord of the Treasury'. He normally resides at Number 11 Downing Street.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
The Chancellor - also known as "Chancellor of the Exchequer" is responsible as a Minister for the treasury, and for the country's economy. For Example, the Chancellor set taxes and tax rates. The Chancellor is the only MP allowed to drink Alcohol in the House of Commons; s/he is permitted an alcoholic drink while delivering the budget.
