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Friday, March 29, 2024

Firm Grip Kept on Scotland’s Finances

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Small 2019-20 underspend helping COVID-19 response.

New figures show that prudent budget management is enabling the Scottish Government to maximise its response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The 2019-20 Provisional Budget Outturn reveals a 0.7 per cent underspend on a total budget of ÂŁ34.6 billion – down from 0.9 per cent the previous year – with all of the ÂŁ258 million underspend carried forward and most having already been deployed.

Borrowing was ÂŁ45 million less than originally planned and the ÂŁ717 million collected from the Scottish Landfill Tax and the Land and Buildings Transactions Tax was the highest since the taxes were fully devolved, despite COVID-19 affecting revenues in March.

Commenting on the figures, Finance Secretary Kate Forbes (pictured) said:

“The provisional outturn demonstrates that the Scottish Government spent more than 99 per cent of our budget in 2019-20 on the delivery of public services and supporting the economy.

“Our sensible financial management has provided us with additional flexibility to deal with the effects of COVID-19 and the sustained and damaging post-Brexit economic uncertainty.

“We will continue to maintain a firm grip on Scotland’s public finances and do all we can to protect Scotland’s economy and ensure that, as a country, we are back on our feet as quickly and as safely as possible.

“We have very limited room for manoeuvre within our budget, which is why I will continue to make the case to the UK Government for both an increase in funding and flexibility to allow the Scottish Government to respond fully to the COVID-19 crisis.”

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