Chamber and committees

Indeed. Of course, people are always quite happy for other people to pay more tax, even though they themselves are never so enthusiastic—with the exception of John Mason, who is always keen to pay more tax.

I thank Emma Congreve and Professor Heald for their evidence, which was extremely helpful. The committee will consider and agree a response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the resource spending review framework at a future meeting.

We will now take a short break before we move on to our next item of business.

The next item is evidence from the Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth, Tom Arthur, on the draft amendment regulations—the so-called spring budget revision.

Mr Arthur is joined by Scottish Government officials Scott Mackay, head of fiscal management and strategy, and Niall Caldwell, corporate treasurer. I welcome you all to the meeting and I invite Mr Arthur to make a short opening statement.

I think that we need to keep an eye on that area. The Government has a commitment to build a certain number of houses, but at the same time construction inflation is at a very high level, and any budgetary reductions will militate against reaching that target.

An issue that a number of members have commented on arises in section A.3 of annex A of the supporting document. In that section, which relates to Whitehall transfers, you say:

“The largest of these”

transfers

“relates to a further instalment of the migrant health surcharge of £62.4 million.”

Can you tell us a wee bit about the migrant health surcharge?

Given that we might be seeing a significant additional number of refugees coming in over the next few months, will that increase significantly? Will you be looking at Barnett consequentials as a result of that in the months ahead?

I think that we will want to look at that a bit more in future revisions—perhaps in the autumn revision—to ensure that we are not comparing apples with oranges.

I have just one more question before I let in my colleagues, who I know have some questions of their own. On 3 February, the same day that the spring budget revision was published, the UK Government announced a package of cost of living measures with an associated consequential impact for the Scottish Government of around £290 million, which was incorporated into the Scottish budget on 10 February. It now transpires that that £290 million will not be coming forward. What are the implications of that for the Scottish budget in the spring budget revision?

I am interested in what you have to say on that, because the Scottish Parliament information centre said in its briefing for the committee that

“On the Resource (day-to-day spending) side the Scottish Government must find £98 million by 31 March to meet commitments for the next year budget year starting on 1 April”

as a result, in effect, of not receiving that £290 million.

And if young people get jobs, they might not need to go on to such a scheme.

As the committee has no further questions, I thank the minister for his evidence.

Item 5 is formal consideration of the motion on the instrument. I invite the minister to move motion S6M-03203.

Motion moved,

That the Finance and Public Administration Committee recommends that the Scottish Landfill Tax (Standard Rate and Lower Rate) Order 2022 be approved.—[Tom Arthur]

Motion agreed to.

I thank the minister and his officials for their evidence today. We will in due course publish a short report to Parliament setting out our decisions on both the spring budget revision and the order that we have just considered.

That concludes today’s meeting. The next item on our agenda, which is consideration of our work programme, will be discussed in private.

Good morning, and welcome to the ninth meeting in 2022 of the Finance and Public Administration Committee. The first item on our agenda is our final evidence session on the Scottish Government’s resource spending review framework.

I welcome to the committee Emma Congreve, knowledge exchange fellow at the Fraser of Allander Institute, and David Heald, professor of public sector accounting at the University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith business school.

We will move straight to questions. Professor Heald, in your written submission, you say that the focus should be on enhancing

“the efficiency of public services ... Improving relationships with local authorities”

and

“Ensuring that ... financial plans are fiscally sustainable in light of the COVID-19 legacy and the demographic challenges”.

What does the Scottish Government need to do to enhance the efficiency of our public services?