Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 17 January 2024.
Tom Arthur
Scottish National Party
I agree. There are two fundamental issues. First, the number of fiscal powers that are reserved to the UK Government means that we are exceptionally limited. Secondly, there is the way in which the UK Government conducts fiscal policy. Beyond the catastrophic mishandling of the mini-budget, we still have a cycle of fiscal events that seek to serve political purposes more than to soundly manage public finances. For example, we are still to find out what our final budget position is for this year through supplementary estimates. With regard to the financial position for next year, we are awaiting a budget on 6 March, in which—potentially or potentially not—rabbits may be pulled out of the hat. That is not a way to govern public finances, and it stands in stark contrast to the Scottish Parliament’s approach where, collectively operating within those restrictions, a budget is introduced and scrutinised long in advance of the start of the financial year. There is much that the UK Government and, indeed, the UK Parliament could learn from the way in which we do things in this chamber.