Portfolio Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 20 November 2024.
Mark Griffin
Labour
To ask the Scottish Government what early discussion it has had with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities regarding the detail of the financial settlement that it has received from the United Kingdom Government’s budget. (S6O-03987)
Shona Robison
Scottish National Party
We have had unprecedented levels of engagement with COSLA ahead of the budget, in line with the principles that are set out in the Verity house agreement. With regard to the UK budget, the First Minister committed to providing COSLA with an open-book assessment of the impact on the Scottish budget, and that commitment has been delivered in full. We have also been in discussion with COSLA about the adverse impact of the imposition of increased employer national insurance contributions on local government, which COSLA has estimated will cost local authorities an additional £265 million.
Mark Griffin
Labour
It is good to hear that the Government is now adhering to the principles of the Verity house agreement, after last-minute budget announcements to its party conference and the breakdown of trust that inevitably followed from those decisions. Will the Cabinet secretary share the Government’s planning assumptions for the local budget settlement to COSLA and local authorities in advance, to allow them to properly prepare for the coming financial year and to start to repair that relationship?
Shona Robison
Scottish National Party
If we are going to talk about surprise announcements, we should mention the hike in employer national insurance contributions, which applies to local government to the tune of £265 million—that was a bit of a surprise announcement that local government had not expected.
We will continue to work with local government on the budget in the run-up to 4 December, and we are sharing a lot of information. On the information about the budget itself, I would get in quite a lot of difficulty if I did not share that in this place first on 4 December. We will go as far as we can in discussions with COSLA, and those discussions will continue for as long as they are required, up until 4 December.
Pam Gosal
Conservative
I have spoken to chief executives in local authorities across my region of West Scotland who have said that councils are struggling financially. One local authority chief exec even compared last year’s council tax freeze to a power grab whereby the United Kingdom Government tells the Scottish Government whether or not it can raise taxes. If councils are being dictated to by the Scottish Government, the Verity house agreement is not worth the paper that it is written on. Will the Cabinet secretary therefore provide clarity on whether councils will be able to set their own council tax rates in the coming budget?
Shona Robison
Scottish National Party
That will be part of the budget announcement on 4 December, and it is part of the discussions with local government. It is a bit of a surprise that Pam Gosal is talking about funding to local government, given that a number of local authorities in England went bust under the auspices of her Government, due to a lack of funding. The funding that is provided to local government in Scotland is much better than what has been provided to councils in England—hence the fragility of so many of them. We will continue to discuss with local government their needs for funding and the position of the council tax within that.
Alexander Stewart
Conservative
Year after year, local government budgets have been squeezed while COSLA continues to highlight concerns that councils are struggling to find funds to provide for even statutory services. In real terms, the budget for local government this year is lower than it has been in the past, while demand for public services continues to increase. Will the Cabinet secretary guarantee that the forthcoming budget settlement will be sufficient for councils to deliver their lifeline statutory services?
Shona Robison
Scottish National Party
We started this session of portfolio questions with Craig Hoy demanding that we cut taxes in the budget and, within a few minutes, we get to Alexander Stewart demanding an increase in funding for local government. The Conservatives really need to start talking to one another, because that is economic and financial nonsense. If we want more money for public services, taxes are an important part of that. We cannot cut taxes and have more money for local government as well. [ Interruption .]
Liam McArthur
Liberal Democrat
And we cannot listen to the answers to questions when members are being heckled. I encourage members on the front benches to be quiet.
Question Time is an opportunity for MPs and Members of the House of Lords to ask Government Ministers questions. These questions are asked in the Chamber itself and are known as Oral Questions. Members may also put down Written Questions. In the House of Commons, Question Time takes place for an hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays after Prayers. The different Government Departments answer questions according to a rota and the questions asked must relate to the responsibilities of the Government Department concerned. In the House of Lords up to four questions may be asked of the Government at the beginning of each day's business. They are known as 'starred questions' because they are marked with a star on the Order Paper. Questions may also be asked at the end of each day's business and these may include a short debate. They are known as 'unstarred questions' and are less frequent. Questions in both Houses must be written down in advance and put on the agenda and both Houses have methods for selecting the questions that will be asked. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P1 at the UK Parliament site.
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.
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It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
The House of Commons.
The Conservatives are a centre-right political party in the UK, founded in the 1830s. They are also known as the Tory party.
With a lower-case ‘c’, ‘conservative’ is an adjective which implies a dislike of change, and a preference for traditional values.
