Scotland’s Financial Strength

As an amendment to motion S4M-06016 in the name of John Swinney (Scotland’s Financial Strength), leave out from “report” to end and insert, “notes in particular the volatility of oil and gas revenues over the last four years, annual changes in which can exceed half the entire cost of the NHS in Scotland; welcomes the strength of the oil and gas industry, including its tens of thousands of jobs in Scotland, all within the UK framework; is disappointed that the Scottish Government continues to delay the publication of an overall assessment of the cost of its policies for an independent Scotland and is disappointed that the Fiscal Commission Working Group did not address this; notes that the Expert Working Group on Welfare and Constitutional Reform has been provided with analysis from Scottish Government officials showing that the welfare costs for Scotland will increase by £1.9bn from the current year to 2017-18; believes that it should be a priority for the Scottish Government, upon receipt of the report of the Expert Working Group on Welfare and Constitutional Reform to publish, before the summer recess, a statement showing the costs of its promises to increase spending and its commitments to reduce taxes; believes that the people of Scotland deserve straight answers to the overall, fundamental question of affordability rather than being strung along by a series of ad hoc commitments deigned to appeal to particular groups yet divorced from any analysis of overall affordability."