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The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
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Displaying 2151 contributions
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Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
Colin Beattie
What about enablers? What would help to push those things forward?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
Colin Beattie
Liz—
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
Colin Beattie
Hisashi, do you have a comment on this?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
Colin Beattie
A couple of points come out of that. You said that it is a gross figure. Do you have any projections for, on the other side of the coin, jobs that will no longer be required, which will go away?
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Just Transition (Grangemouth Area)
Meeting date: 22 February 2023
Colin Beattie
So we do not actually have a figure for the new jobs that will, we hope, be created as a direct result of the transition to net zero.
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Colin Beattie
I move to paragraph 1.5 of part 1, which mentions
“The reduction in Scottish income tax outturn arising from these adjustments”,
which are estimates for tax due, uncollected amounts and tax reliefs. It goes on to say:
“In some areas of the calculation, HMRC does not have data available in sufficient detail to identify income tax liabilities, reliefs or other adjustments relating to individual taxpayers.”
Again, HMRC is using UK figures to work out some sort of calculation, but the pattern of Scottish taxpayers—versus those in the rest of the UK—is very different, as far as the information that we have seen here is concerned. How accurate can that estimate be? What kind of distortion comes in there?
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Colin Beattie
There are one or two areas that I would like to examine more closely. Again, though, there are an awful lot of estimates in here that must distort the final figure.
Paragraph 15 of the NAO report states:
“There are no risks identified in the Scottish SPR which are specific to Scotland as HMRC assesses that compliance risk in Scotland is consistent with the rest of the UK.”
Given the different mix of taxpayers and so on across the rest of the UK, is that statement accurate?
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Colin Beattie
In connection with the compliance yield of £280 million, paragraph 16 states that
“HMRC calculates these figures as a proportion of the equivalent UK figure, rather than ... Scotland-specific data to quantify the risks.”
That does not seem as though it could be accurate.
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Colin Beattie
I said at the beginning that I took out 32 cases in which parts of the revenue and liabilities are estimated. The extent of the issues is such that, if you take one, it is not that big but, if you take 32, you are looking at a bigger distortion. I hope that, over a period, that will gradually reduce with experience and an understanding that there are areas to be sorted.
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”
Meeting date: 9 February 2023
Colin Beattie
Perhaps the Auditor General for Scotland could comment on engaging with the Scottish Government on that.
