Chamber and committees

I will come to Mrs Watters in a minute. Mr Sneddon, is that a problem with the consultation process? Can we achieve improved national outcomes and certain quality standards as well as the right delivery in local circumstances? Is there a structural problem, or is it just a matter of consultation and ensuring that national and local government work better together, as you said earlier?

That is very helpful. If the vehicle is still running and you would prefer it to stop, are there on-going discussions between local and national Government about how to improve matters?

The committee is interested in the issue on two fronts. First, as you know, we have issues with the initial financial memorandum to the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill, the lower estimate for the cost of which was £1.3 billion, which is a considerable amount of money in relation to some of the things that we are discussing.

Given that so many stakeholders gave evidence in committee that showed that the particular national care service programme that the Scottish Government has put forward is not desperately popular—we have four committee reports that demonstrate that—will the Scottish Government consider realigning some of that money to help with other expenditure? I am asking for confirmation that that will be reviewed.

Thank you for that. I will come to the point about widening the tax base in a moment, but I want to go back to the issue of projected increases in health, social care and social security spending. You said that you are looking at 500 different programmes to see where potential savings might be made. Does that include the national care service?

Secondly, I turn to the tax issue. You have made no apology for a progressive tax agenda, but is it not the case, cabinet secretary, that the current structures are not yielding the increase in revenues that we need? In the 2020-21 budget, the revenues were only £96 million more than the amount that was subtracted from the block grant—that figure came from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and the Scottish Government came out with the same statistic. What do you propose to do to ensure that the tax base is not only wider than it is now but also that the revenues that we get from tax overall increase? That is a major part of the equation that you described in your opening statement.

One final question, cabinet secretary: what would you do to make Scotland more competitive in terms of tax in comparison with the rest of the UK?

Good morning. I welcome the acknowledgement of the serious fiscal situation that the Scottish Government faces. It was good to hear that from you.

In your statement to Parliament on the medium-term financial strategy, you said that you committed to the Scottish economy being on a sustainable trajectory by 2026 and you made no bones about the fact that tough decisions would have to be made. I want to ask about that. All the forecasters and the Scottish Government statistics predict considerable increases in health, social care and social security spending over the next five years. I think that I am right in saying that, for social security alone, there will be an increase from around £5.3 billion to £7.8 billion.

Those policy areas all tie in with your comments about addressing poverty and the needs of the most vulnerable. If that spending is going to be so high, where will you be able to make the tough decisions that will help the fiscal situation?

There will definitely have to be a new financial memorandum. I reiterate that four committees of Parliament are not happy with the current plan, which is why I asked the question.

Notwithstanding that, is it not the case that the overall tax revenues are nothing like what we need to be able to take in to address some of the funding gap? That is the problem, and today’s statistics about unemployment, employment and economic inactivity were pretty stark about the numbers of people who are not actually in work at all, which means a loss of potential revenue. Then we have the issue with north-east jobs, which are some of the better-paid ones with people paying slightly higher tax rates. That money is not coming to the Scottish Government, so there is a pretty serious situation where the tax revenue that the Scottish Government is getting just now is nothing like what is required to deliver extra money for its public expenditure.

You are quite right to say that you cannot comment on projected policies that the Scottish Government should employ, but I am interested in finding out whether, in all the analysis that you are doing and the data that you are using, you are aware of other countries or other attempts to try to reform public services in the way that you have described with regard to increasing efficiency, making use of technology or whatever. You have already given us three or four examples, but are there any other areas that, without projecting into Scottish Government policy, you think that we should be looking at?