PUBLIC Finance Minister Kate Forbes was challenged to tell MSPs how much money she has “squirrelled away” and have a “grown up discussion” on the Budget yesterday.
Forbes became the first woman to deliver a Scottish Budget last week after Derek Mackay resigned his post as Finance Secretary over a schoolboy messaging scandal.
That move came hours before the statement was due and Mackay – also suspended from the SNP – is yet to be formally replaced.
Facing Holyrood’s Finance Committee yesterday, Forbes acknowledged the “unique circumstances” of this Budget.
However, she said that was because the UK Government’s decision to push its Budget back means the Scottish Government’s own spending plan is based on the Conservative Party’s election manifesto.
READ MORE: FACT CHECK: Is 'every Scottish public service worse than a year ago'?
Forbes said waiting for after Sajid Javid’s March 11 statement could have been “quite catastrophic” for the planning of social care and other key services. However, she said the country’s finances will now be partly based on “assumptions” about cash that “might come, that we don’t know for a fact will come”.
She told the panel – which was sitting during parliamentary recess: “The engagement between officials in the Scottish Government and at Treasury have merely resulted in officials at Treasury referring us to the Conservative Party manifesto.”
Forbes, who is also the youngest MSP to deliver a Budget, went on: “There’s a lot hanging on taking the Treasury at their word.”
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said the Budget was Mackay’s work, not Forbes’. He said Mackay had played a “game” with the committee, stating: “Mr Mackay would come along and say every penny was accounted for and we would press him on how much money there was down the back of the sofa and he would assure us not a single penny was to be found that wasn’t in the Budget and then lo and behold, just some three weeks later or less, we would get to stage one of the Budget debate and as if by magic he would produce out of the ether vast sums.” He went on: “Why don’t you just tell us how much money you have got squirrelled away so we can have a proper grown up, constructive discussion.”
Forbes answered that all available funds had been “fully allocated”, telling Fraser: “There is no more resource.”
Council body Cosla has accused the Scottish Government of planning a £95 million cut to local budgets and Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said councillors have “serious concerns that councils will be in breach of their legal duties”.
Forbes said a “fair settlement” has been drawn up, adding: “Nobody is pretending this is an easy process, there are hard decisions across the board. But I still strongly believe that we have protected local government.”
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