THE Scottish Government is due to publish its latest Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) report on Wednesday morning.
It comes around every year and is often at the centre of the debate on Scottish independence.
But what is GERS and how is it all calculated?
What is GERS?
The GERS figures were published for the first time in 1992 under then-prime minister John Major.
At the time, Tory ministers in the Scotland Office believed it would help inform the debate on devolution.
Essentially, the report estimates the difference between what Scotland raises in taxation and what is spent on its public services.
The most recent GERS report suggested that, for the period of 21/22, Scotland had a government deficit of £23.7 billion.
How is Gers calculated?
GERS is produced by independent civil servant statisticians.
The Scottish Government has previously said that GERS is a National Statistics publication, which means it is “produced independently of Scottish ministers and has been assessed by the UK Statistics Authority as being produced in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics”.
It added: “This means the statistics have been found to meet user needs, to be methodologically sound, explained well and produced free of political interference.”
The total spend is made up of Scottish and local government services as well as UK welfare spending and pension in Scotland.
It also includes UK Government spending in non-devolved areas such as defence and allocates a proportion of the UK’s debt interest payments to Scotland.
When it comes to revenue, there have previously been complaints that the data used is not collected for Scotland has to be estimated using UK figures.
However, in recent years, Scottish income tax, council tax, business rates, profits made by Scottish Water, landfill tax, land and building transactions tax and local authority user charges and fees are included.
The Fraser of Allander institute has said that estimates are not unusual when it comes to economic statistics.
Does it represent the whole economy?
On the Scottish Government’s website, it’s made clear that the GERS is only a report on public sector revenue and expenditure.
It therefore “does not directly report on Scotland’s wider economy”. Anybody interested in this should refer to other economic statistics products.
This includes the quarterly Gross Domestic Product figures or Quarterly National Accounts Scotland.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel