Westminster parties control most public spending for Scotland.

Labour and the Tories between them control most spending for Scotland. The Scottish Government has no say. These parties are managed from England, where their priorities are set with no input from Scotland.

How money is raised

Council tax and Non-domestic rates

Local councils collect Scottish Council Tax and Non-domestic rates. They decide how this is spent.

Other taxes – primarily income tax

The UK HMRC collects Scottish tax receipts. These receipts become part of a UK budget for the UK Government to spend. As well as tax receipts, the UK Government is able to raise debt for investment spending. Because Scotland is not a Sovereign state it is unable to raise money in this way.

Block Grant

The Scottish Government mostly raises the money it spends from a “Block Grant” given to it by the UK Government. The amount of tax receipts and sovereign debt investment that Scotland gets back is determined by an agreed formula – the Barnett formula.

The Barnett formula is based on UK total receipts and is shared purely on the basis of population split. It ignores actual receipts raised in Scotland, and any different needs that Scotland might have.

How money is spent

The biggest chunk of spending for Scotland is carried out by the UK Government. Scotland has no say in this. The UK Government at Westminster is elected using First Part The Post which means that most votes cast don’t count. As a result Scottish parties have never been part of a UK Government.

This is money spent on powers “retained” by the UK Government, for example immigration and foreign trade such as Brexit.

About one third of spending for Scotland is carried out by the Scottish Government at Holyrood. Elected using Proportional Representation, Holyrood is a much better representation of how people in Scotland vote.

Virtually all remaining spending is carried out by Local Councils. In Scotland currently 17 of our 32 local councils are led by Westminster parties (Labour 10, Tory 6 and Liberal Democrats 1). These parties decide priorities for local spending.

Note that currently seven of these local councils are led by Westminster parties, despite the SNP being the largest party. This is because the Tory and Labour parties work together to exclude them from power.

Sources

https://www.gov.scot/publications/government-expenditure-revenue-scotland-2022-23/pages/5/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/funding-local-government-scotland-2022-23/documents/