Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-02-29.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Smith Commission’s recommendation that there should be no detriment as a result of UK Government or Scottish Government policy decisions after devolution would be breached if the Scottish Government repeatedly spent monies passed to them for NHS services in accordance with the Barnett formula on other unrelated services.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The mechanical application of the Barnett Formula ensures that the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Northern Ireland Assembly receive a population share of changes in UK government funding on the services for which they have devolved responsibility. In accordance with the principles of devolution and the devolution Acts themselves, it is for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their funding (from the block grant or taxes/borrowing) to public services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; and it is for the devolved legislatures to hold them to account. The Scottish Government’s new fiscal framework does not alter this.