Chamber and committees

The package of funding the Scottish Government is providing for the financial year 2016-17 to local government will enable councils to increase the pace of reform and improve public services to communities across the country. Taking into account the addition of the £250 million to support the integration of health and social care, the strong but challenging financial settlement for local government represents the equivalent to a reduction in local authority overall estimated expenditure of less than one per cent in 2016-17. I believe that such a reduction should have minimal impact on the jobs or services as Scotland's councils should be able to address these challenges from a healthy base as local government funding has been rising in Scotland in recent years with core funding protected and new money provided for additional responsibilities.

The Scottish Government has always attached the highest priority to maintaining public sector employment.

The package of funding the Scottish Government is providing for the financial year 2016-17 to local government will enable councils to increase the pace of reform and improve public services to communities across the country. Taking into account the addition of the £250 million to support the integration of health and social care, next year’s reduction in local authority overall estimated expenditure is less than one per cent. I believe that such a reduction should have minimal impact on the jobs or services as Scotland's councils should be able to address these challenges from a healthy base as local government funding has been rising in Scotland in recent years with core funding protected and new money provided for additional responsibilities.

The Scottish Government recognises the severe challenges facing the oil and gas industry, which is why our focus is on what we can do to support the industry and the work force.

We continue to do all that we can within devolved powers to help the sector. In 2015, we set up the Energy Jobs Taskforce, which has already helped to support more than 2,500 individuals and 100 employers through the current downturn, and will continue to support the industry to improve collaboration, co-operation and innovation. We have also announced a £12 million Transition Training Fund, which will offer grants to individuals to support their redeployment through retraining or further education.

The Scottish Government continues to monitor the impact that low oil prices is having on the oil and gas industry and its wider supply chain and this will be discussed at the next Energy Jobs Taskforce meeting, which will take place on 23 March 2016.

The budget allocation on Erskine Bridge repair and maintenance for 2016-17 is £3.76 million

Since 2006-07 the Scottish Government has allocated the following amounts to network strengthening including in-year changes approved through autumn and spring budget revisions:

The total expenditure on Erskine Bridge repair and maintenance from 2006-07 to 2015-16 is £36.196 million.

*Anticipated 2015-16 expenditure to 31 March 2016

The Chancellor of the Exchequer's spending plans for the period 2016-17 to 2019-20 mean that the Scottish Government's total discretionary budget will, by 2019-20, be around 12.5 per cent, or £3.9 billion, lower in real terms than it was in 2010-11.

The Draft Budget 2016-17 provides a full year by year breakdown of the UK Government Spending Review allocation for the Scottish Budget up to 2019-20.

The Scottish Government does not hold a complete projection for all areas of annually managed expenditure (AME) beyond those published for 2016-17. The Office of Budget Responsibility does publish AME projections, including consideration of the position for the Scottish NHS and teachers pensions and Scottish student loans as part of their Economic and fiscal outlook, the latest version of which is available at: http://budgetresponsibility.org.uk/economic-fiscal-outlook-november-2015-3/.

The relevant draft budget figures show that local government funding has reduced in real terms between 2008-09 and 2016-17 by 8.3 per cent. The Scottish Government's total departmental expenditure limit (DEL) plus non-domestic rates income (NDRI) budget has reduced in real terms by 5.3 per cent over the same period.

This comparison reflects the year-on-year protection given to the health budget which has increased by 3.8 per cent in real terms over the same period. If the health budget is excluded from the DEL plus NDRI total then the remainder of the Scottish Budget has reduced by 10.4 per cent in real terms showing that local government has been given a degree of protection compared to all other non-health budgets.

The 2016-17 local government funding figures have been adjusted for the removal of police and fire funding and the re-profiling of the 2016-17 capital funding but have not been adjusted to reflect the additional £250 million the Scottish Government intends to invest in integrating health and social care services which will have a positive effect on local authority budgets.

Financial transactions are a capital funding source from HM Treasury which can only be used to fund loans and equity investments that cross the public/private sector boundary and must be repaid over time.

A repayment profile has been agreed with HM Treasury on the basis that 80% will be repaid over a 30 year time period organised around the individual scheme repayment arrangements and based on forecast receipts rather than a fixed annual amount. This profile will be reviewed annually taking account of actual repayments to the Scottish Government.

As at 31 March 2015 no financial transactions repayments have been made to the Treasury.