Robison warns cuts will have ‘profound effect’ on services

Cuts to the Scottish government’s budget will have a “profound effect” on its ability to deliver services, the finance secretary has warned.

Shona Robison also claimed the UK is entering a “new era of austerity” under the Labour government at Westminster, ahead of an announcement later where she is expected to confirm massive cuts to public services in Scotland.

Weekend newspaper reports suggested the scale of the cuts could be over £500m, with a halt to non-essential spending already in place.

Ms Robison says she has been left with no choice due to UK government cuts that have affected available funding, while Labour claim a “painful” budget in October is needed to combat a “black hole” in public finances left by the previous Conservative administration.

Ms Robison said: “Under the Labour government it is clear that we are entering a whole new era of austerity.

“The cuts that they are proposing to make will have a profound effect on our ability to deliver for the people of Scotland – but [the] SNP government will do everything we can to protect people and public services from the cuts that Westminster is making to our budget”.

She added that her government’s budget would still be “balanced”.

However, a report last week from independent economic forecaster the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) said that “much of the pressure comes from the Scottish government’s own decisions”.

Its report found that a council tax freeze, more generous public sector pay deals than other parts of the UK and social security reforms meant the Scottish government had narrowed “its room for manoeuvre now and in the future.”

The Scottish government have already confirmed the reintroduction of peak rail fares, scrapping free bus travel for asylum seekers, delaying an initiative to provide technology devices such as iPads for people who are “digitally excluded” and halting universal winter fuel payments for pensioners.

Environmental groups and Scotland’s art sector have already expressed concern over the impact on their area.

First Minister John Swinney is expected to address the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday to unveil his first Programme for Government.

At his weekend speech to the SNP conference he said the government needed to work “smarter and harder”, but denied the party were introducing austerity in Scotland.

On Monday he told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme that the devolved administration was “living within its means”.

Ms Robison previously told BBC Scotland News that the devolved nations needed more “fiscal flexibility”, and that Labour’s Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ cuts were having a knock-on effect on the Scottish budget.

However, Scottish Labour’s finance spokesman Michael Marra accused the SNP of “secrecy and spin” regarding the country’s finances.

He said: “It’s time for the SNP to come clean about the financial chaos it has created and tell us the truth about what lies ahead. The SNP has said ‘essential’ jobs would be protected from cuts, but it has failed to say in any way what an ‘essential’ job actually is.

“This incompetence and failure to plan is causing uncertainty for public sector workers and chaos for service leaders, who now need urgent clarity”.

Scottish Conservatives finance spokeswoman Liz Smith stated that the SNP has created a “high tax, low growth environment” that should be reversed, and that any further tax rises would be “devastating”.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the SNP were in “a mess” because they were focused on independence rather than public services.

He added: “This statement needs to contain a commitment to growing the economy and a grovelling apology for the amount of money that has been wasted”.

The Scottish Greens called for the upcoming Programme for Government to have “human rights and equality at its heart”.

A UK government spokeswoman said they were taking “tough decisions” to address a £22bn hole in public finances left by the previous government.

They added: “We are committed to working with the Scottish government on our shared priorities to fix the foundations of our economy, so we can rebuild Britain and make every part of the United Kingdom better off.”