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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 24 November 2024
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Displaying 565 contributions

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Finance and Public Administration Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 7 March 2023

Daniel Johnson

Exactly so.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 7 March 2023

Daniel Johnson

How much has been spent in total to date? You have given me the projected figure and the figure that is being spent this year. What is the total figure that has been spent to date on the two vessels?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 7 March 2023

Daniel Johnson

How much has actually been spent or will have been spent by the end of this budget year?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 7 March 2023

Daniel Johnson

It is on page 6. The figure is 18,075.2, whereas when I look up the budget bill as passed, at legislation.gov.uk, I see that the figure there is 18,039. Ensuring that we are using accurate figures is important and I am trying to understand why there would be a difference.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 7 March 2023

Daniel Johnson

Is that the reason for the discrepancy? The heading states:

“Resources other than ... as shown in the Budget Act”.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 7 March 2023

Daniel Johnson

As the convener pointed out, there are a lot of numbers. However, the bottom line, and what people want to know, is whether more or less money is being spent. For example, on regional health boards, has the amount of money that they were budgeted gone up or down compared with what was in the original level 4 figures when we passed the budget bill last year?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 7 March 2023

Daniel Johnson

Yes, and it is about the bottom line in terms of impact. Bluntly, if we are having to ask these questions, I think that members of the public might have even more questions than we do.

I am going through the gross funding changes, and one that will be of particular concern to a number of people is the additional funding that is being made available to Ferguson Marine for the completion of hulls 801 and 802. There was speculation in the press before Christmas that the total sum to be spent on the two vessels might rise to £350 million. How much money will be spent in this budget year on the vessels, and how much money has been spent to date across all budget years?

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 7 March 2023

Daniel Johnson

I will start at a pretty granular level. With regard to annex A, I am looking at the figures in table 1.2. You quoted the budget bill figures, minister. I am interested in the health line. I am slightly confused about the figure of 18,075.2 that you quoted from the first column of table 1.2. When I look at the budget bill as passed, I see that the figure in that line is 18,039,849,000. I am trying to understand the discrepancy there. What is the basis of that figure in the first column of table 1.2? It is not a huge difference but, at the same time, I think that we all want to be accurate.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 7 March 2023

Daniel Johnson

Yes. I am looking at table 1.2 in the papers with which we have been provided.

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Subordinate Legislation

Meeting date: 7 March 2023

Daniel Johnson

Right—okay. That is a useful clarification. I misunderstood—I thought that we were using what was passed as the baseline.

Looking at the figure more broadly, I understand that, in terms of the narrative, the latest budget revision adds £427.4 million. Again, however, when I look at the aggregate figure as passed, it actually shows—as the convener pointed out—almost £80 million less.

If we look at the total additions and subtractions, given that there is some £135 million of resource being added to those budget lines, that would imply that around £200 million is coming out of other budget lines in health. Is that correct? If so, what are those things?

Again, in line with some of the convener’s questions, given the pressures—to which you rightly alluded, minister, and which we all understand—I think that people might be surprised that we are actually going to be spending less on health and social care in this budget year, rather than more, in comparison with what was originally budgeted for. What was the summary-level explanation for that lower-than-expected expenditure in that budget area?