FINANCE Secretary Shona Robison was yesterday accused of “misleading” Scots by spinning her budget numbers to appear to boost public spending.
The health and local government budgets are among those inflated by Nats ministers, analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies showed.
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The IFS hit out at similar tactics two years ago, but yesterday it emerged the Scottish Government is still using a similar way of presenting year-on-year changes.
And critics attacked the SNP for the repeat performance, after ex-finance secretary John Swinney was accused of an “apparent attempt to fiddle the books” in 2022.
Economists said ministers had sneakily omitted in-year top ups to the health and local government budgets – worth around £1billion – in order to make next year’s cash settlement appear more generous.
SNP ministers had claimed the health budget will increase by 1.3 per cent in real terms, however IFS boffins said it is instead set to be cut by 0.7 per cent.
Local government – which was claimed to be getting a 6.2 per cent real terms increase – is instead looking at just 1.8 per cent, the experts said.
Overall, public spending is set to drop by 0.4 per cent in real terms between this year and next, the IFS said.
David Phillips, associate director IFS said: “By omitting in-year top-ups to spending plans this year, the official Scottish Budget documentation gives a misleading impression of how the amounts of funding available for the health service, councils, and many other services are set to change next year.”
In official budget documents, Ms Robison claimed the NHS was given an “uplift above real terms”, with “over half a billion” invested in health boards.
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In a speech in Holyrood last week, the finance secretary claimed the government had “prioritised investment” in the NHS.
She added: “I’m delighted that we are in a position to provide over £1 billion of an increase to the health service in Scotland.”
Scottish Labour’s finance spokesperson, Michael Marra MSP said the SNP were “planning to axe public services” and “dupe the public about it”.
He added: “No amount of dodgy sums and spin can mask the damage this SNP government is inflicting on lifeline services.”
Liz Smith, Scottish Tory finance spokesperson, also accused the SNP of misleading the public.
She said: “The IFS analysis makes it clear that the impact of the SNP’s savage tax-and-axe budget will be even worse than it first appeared.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Scottish ministers have provided a real terms increase in Health funding when comparing the opening position for 2024-25 with 2023-24. This includes fully passing on all Health consequentials received for 2024-25.
“As Ministers have said, this Budget was delivered against the backdrop of a UK Autumn Statement that prioritised tax cuts at the expense of spending on public services. As this IFS report acknowledges, additional in-year funding is crucial to maintaining that real terms growth, requiring the UK Government to prioritise additional funding for Health over the course of the year.”