Chamber and committees

I asked that question because we have suffered from fiscal policy and monetary policy pulling in opposite directions. The UK has been trying desperately—perhaps not very successfully, at one stage—to get the right balance on fiscal policy, whereas the Bank of England’s remit is to control inflation, and therefore monetary policy has pulled in the opposite direction. That difficulty means that it really matters what kind of inflation it is, which allows us to determine what policies are put into practice, which is why I asked that question.

That is a very helpful answer. It is good to hear that a paper is coming in early 2023 about that. Is it your understanding that some of the money that is held in the reserves of councils or IJBs could be used to ease some of the financial pressures that councils are under just now?

So, that could that help the budget, from that angle.

I have just one more question, convener.

You rightly mention in paragraph 35 that the Scottish Government has capital borrowing powers and that, while capital borrowing cannot be used to support resource spending, there are certain types of capital spending that could be moved to resource spending. Can you clarify whether there are specific criteria that need to be adhered to in order for that capital spend to be moved to resource spend?

That is helpful. Thank you.

And any decision in that regard has to be set against the HM Treasury criteria.

Thank you, convener. Mr Boyle, in relation to the convener’s first questions this morning, you said that a very high percentage of the Barnett consequential spend in Scotland went on Covid, which was very important in trying to get us through the pandemic. How easy is it to track where that Covid spend went? Are you aware of any unspent Covid money?

No. Well, in effect, it affects both areas, because Scottish Government funds go to local government as well. The issue that I am asking about is this. If there is to be an easing of the fiscal discipline about the transfer of money from capital to resource budgets, is that something that reflects the current extenuating circumstances—you say that you have engaged with the UK Government because of the difficulties that you face—or do you presume that there could be a change to that fiscal discipline whereby it would be possible on a longer term basis to transfer from capital to resource budgets?

From the perspective of the fiscal framework negotiations, do you have any updates on the timescales for when the independent report is due? At what stage are the Scottish Government’s negotiations with the UK Government?

Except that the figures here suggest otherwise, because it is such a big downturn. It is difficult, I would have thought, to convince people that the Scottish Government’s priorities, which include that strong move to net zero, are being adhered to in this budget.