Before the referendum we published a paper that analysed 16 future constitutional scenarios for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. One way we differentiated between these scenarios was by applying a fiscal lens that asks two questions: How much public spending in each territory is under the control of the devolved institutions? How much revenue raised in each territory is the responsibility of the devolved bodies? This approach allows you to see that the current devolution settlements within the UK are deeply asymmetric. So while the Scottish Parliament controls around 60% of total public spending in Scotland, it is only responsible for raising around 7.5% of revenues there. Now that the Smith Commission has reported we’ve updated this analysis so that we can compare the position that has been reached by the five parties through the Smith process to the proposals that they put forward before the referendum. The first thing to note is that these are somewhat ‘rough and ready’ calculations. There are several recommendations in the agreement that would undoubtedly have spending implications, but for which we do not have reliable estimates, so they have been excluded from our calculations. Similarly, it is not always clear how to treat […]
Public Sector Blogs
