Treasury written question – answered at on 19 February 2024.
Lord McNicol of West Kilbride
Shadow Spokesperson (Business and Trade), Shadow Spokesperson (Scotland)
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Scottish Government since it projected a potential £1 billion resource spending gap in 2024–25, rising to £1.9 billion by 2027–28.
Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Parliamentary Secretary, HM Treasury
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury engages regularly with the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance to discuss matters relating to Scottish Government funding. They met most recently in Edinburgh on 25 January at the Finance: Interministerial Standing Committee.
The UK Government is providing the Scottish Government with a record block grant settlement of £41 billion per year over this Spending Review. On top of this, the Scottish Government is receiving over £2 billion in additional funding through the Barnett formula over 2023-24 and 2024-25 as a result of decisions taken at fiscal events.
In August 2023, the UK and Scottish Government reached agreement on an updated Fiscal Framework for the Scottish Government. This included provision to maintain the Scottish Government’s preferred block grant adjustment methodology to account for tax and welfare devolution, remove drawdown limits from the Scotland Reserve and increase the Scottish Government’s borrowing and reserve limits in line with inflation each year.
An economic mechanism used by the Treasury to adjust automatically the amounts of public expenditure allocated to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, to reflect changes in spending levels allocated to public services in England, England and Wales or Great Britain as a whole.
In a normal session there are up to ten standing committees on bills. Each has a chair and from 16 to 50 members. Standing committee members on bills are appointed afresh for each new bill by the Committee of Selection which is required to take account of the composition of the House of Commons (ie. party proportions) as well as the qualification of members to be nominated. The committees are chaired by a member of the Chairmen's Panel (whose members are appointed by the Speaker). In standing committees the Chairman has much the same function as the Speaker in the House of Commons. Like the Speaker, a chairman votes only in the event of a tie, and then usually in accordance with precedent. The committees consider each bill clause by clause and may make amendments. There are no standing committees in the House of Lords.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
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.
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.
