THE Scottish and Welsh Governments have begun a formal dispute process with the UK Government over their claims to receive billions of pounds of extra money as a consequence of the Conservatives £1.5 billion deal for Northern Ireland with the Democratic Unionists.
Both governments argue that any additional funding for Northern Ireland must respect the established funding principles and rules applied through the operation of the Barnett Formula.
Whitehall insists that the deal with the DUP is outwith this funding mechanism and so there will be no financial consequentials for the administrations in Edinburgh and Cardiff.
The two devolved governments estimate that if the Formula were applied, then the Scottish Government would receive a further £2.9bn and the Welsh Government an extra £1.67bn. It has been pointed out that, using the same argument, England would receive an additional £59bn.
Derek Mackay, the Scottish Government’s Finance Secretary, along with his Welsh counterpart Mark Drakeford, have written to the Treasury to invoke the formal dispute resolution process through the Joint Ministerial Committee[JMC].
“The Scottish Government fundamentally disagrees with the way in which this additional funding for Northern Ireland has been allocated,” declared Mr Mackay.
“We have repeatedly made the point that all areas to which the £1billion funding package has been allocated are devolved matters and, therefore, the Barnett Formula should apply.
“Despite this, the UK Government argues that there should be no Barnett consequentials from this deal and refuses to acknowledge that Scotland, Wales and England will be short-changed by billions of pounds.
“That cannot be right and the deal goes against the principles of the UK Treasury’s own statement of funding policy.”
Mr Mackay claimed that any suggestion the new funding arrangement for Northern Ireland was similar to previous funding for City Deals in Scotland was wrong and not in any way comparable.
City deal funding, he explained, was conditional on match-funding from the devolved administrations’ own budgets and also required contributions from local authorities and other regional partners. In addition, the UK Government had promised City Deals for Northern Ireland on top of this £1 billion of additional expenditure.
The move from the Scottish and Welsh Governments comes on the eve of the expected signing of the £1bn City Deal for Edinburgh.
Mr Mackay added: “It remains my hope that we will be able to reach a satisfactory resolution to this situation, which results in a funding allocation across Scotland, Wales and England that is fair and reasonable for all but in order to reach such a solution we now need to pursue the formal dispute resolution process.”
The JMC acts as a forum for settling inter-administration disputes that cannot be solved through bilateral official or ministerial channels.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel