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Seòmar agus comataidhean

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 9 July 2025
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Displaying 3298 contributions

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Public Audit Committee

“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”

Meeting date: 11 May 2023

Richard Leonard

I have one final question in this area. Do you expect there to be a higher level of income tax per head in Scotland as a result of the process of fiscal drag, wages going up, inflation rising and so on?

Public Audit Committee

“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”

Meeting date: 11 May 2023

Richard Leonard

It would be helpful if you could notify the committee of when the minutes will be published on the website, so that we have warning of that.

Public Audit Committee

“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”

Meeting date: 11 May 2023

Richard Leonard

I admit that I do not have last May’s medium-term financial strategy in front of me or at my fingertips. When you describe the downturn in the oil and gas industry affecting income tax take receipts in the north-east, we can broadly understand that, but to what extent do you have data that absolutely backs that up?

Public Audit Committee

“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”

Meeting date: 11 May 2023

Richard Leonard

If the fee attached to the service level agreement or other parts of the memorandum of understanding were revised, that is something that you could do, if you had the resources.

Public Audit Committee

“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”

Meeting date: 11 May 2023

Richard Leonard

That would be helpful.

This morning’s session has been very useful for the committee. I thank Alyson Stafford, Lorraine King, Jonathan Athow and Phil Batchelor for giving evidence. We will consider whether we would like to take any further steps but, for the time being, I thank you for your evidence and draw the public part of the meeting to a close.

11:27 Meeting continued in private until 11:38.  

Public Audit Committee

“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”

Meeting date: 11 May 2023

Richard Leonard

Thank you. I am now going to move things on and invite Willie Coffey to put some questions to you.

Public Audit Committee

“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”

Meeting date: 11 May 2023

Richard Leonard

So you have had talks about talks.

Public Audit Committee

“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”

Meeting date: 11 May 2023

Richard Leonard

Another area that the committee has been particularly keen to explore is the implications of a much higher inflation economy, one of the consequences of which is that people’s real-terms living standards are, in most cases, being cut. On the other side of that equation, pay settlements have been higher and people’s earnings—not in real terms but in monetary terms—have been going up, which presumably has an implication for the income tax that is collected.

I turn to Jonathan Athow first. Could you help us to understand a bit more about the impact of inflation on the collection of Scottish income tax?

Public Audit Committee

“Administration of Scottish income tax 2021/22”

Meeting date: 11 May 2023

Richard Leonard

Thank you very much.

The committee is aware that, in places, the reports prepared by the National Audit Office and the Auditor General for Scotland used language such as “continuing limitations” and “risk”, and identified some areas of concern. We will get to those shortly but, before we get into some of that detail, I will take you back to one of the fundamental issues raised in the audit.

The issue came out in the evidence session that we had on 9 February with the National Audit Office and the Auditor General. They drew our attention to the conclusion that the growth in Scottish income tax receipts in the financial year 2021-22 was expected to be 11.3 per cent, whereas the UK equivalent income tax receipts were expected to grow by 13.2 per cent. I turn to Alyson Stafford first. Can you give us an explanation of the Government’s thinking on why Scottish income tax growth has been lower than the growth in the UK as a whole in recent years?

Public Audit Committee

Section 23 Report: “NHS in Scotland 2022”

Meeting date: 4 May 2023

Richard Leonard

Mr Burns, you are using the language of progress and improvement but, to give two examples from the Audit Scotland report, the percentage of A and E attendances seen within four hours dropped from 83 per cent in December 2019 to just 62 per cent in December 2022, and paragraph 37 of the report states that delayed discharges

“increased to the highest level since 2014/15”.

That does not sound like progress and improvement to me. It sounds as if we are going not forwards but backwards.