Speeches by Murray.

“I would be very cautious about a number of things. One would be undermining the longevity of the Barnett formula, in terms of what it does in the Scottish context. We know the figures are quite clear that it is £120 in Scotland for £100 in the rest of the United Kingdom, so that is a clear issue. In order for a needs-b…”

“It is a great pleasure to be back at the Scottish Affairs Committee. I am sorry the democratic process has delayed us somewhat, but we are very delighted to be here. Of course, we are joined by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Kirsty McNeill, and our director of the Scotland Office, Laurence Rockey. In terms of …”

“Yes.”

“I had the most tremendous answer for you as well, but the bells beat me.”

“I heard it was six.”

“The answer to that question depends on which is the higher, but I would have thought that linking it to inflation means that over the course of time it maintains its value, rather than being linked to something that might be lower than inflation and decreasing in value. I would have thought that that would have a real …”

“Just generally, Madam Chair, if you do not mind, the reason that the Budget last October had such a significant impact on Scotland was because Scottish MPs from across parties—but particularly within Government—were championing Scotland’s cause, which is why the £4.9 billion figure was so high.”

“Scotland gets £8.6 million-worth. It is being done in conjunction with the Scottish Football Association, so we get more bang for our buck together. It has a really ambitious programme over the next period of years in order to upgrade multi-pitches and things. Minister McNeill won the keepy-uppy challenge and launched …”

“We are champing at every Scottish bit.”

“Well, as a Scotland office—this might feed into some questions going into the more general inquiry session later—we have reformulated the whole of the Department into four key priorities: economic growth, green industries, Brand Scotland and poverty. Those are the four key strategies that we are pursuing as a Departmen…”

“It depends who you are—no, I am joking. “Mostly yes and slightly no” is the answer to your question, in that sense. I can use the example of the Ayrshire growth deal, which had to be reprofiled completely with new projects. Therefore, there is obviously still some space in those kinds of growth deals to have a look at …”

“The money is still there; it is just re-profiled. It is good news that we are working very hard with partners to make sure that the growth deals that have had to be re-profiled are getting on stream as quickly as possible.”

“I have not done so, but the Scotland reserve is agreed with the Scottish Government and the Treasury on an annual basis.”

“The Scottish Government agree to the reserve. The Scotland reserve is done in agreement with the Scottish Government. It is currently sitting, as you say, at £711 million. The annual drawdown on both capital and resource spending on that is unlimited, so you can spend all the way up to £711 million. That is done in agr…”

“I suppose the issue becomes just the way in which processes work. That is why the fiscal framework allows for those balancing payments to be used in terms of both cash flow and, indeed, capital and revenue. The other thing we tend to forget about is we always talk about Barnett and block grants and so on, but actually …”

“If I could gently say, if it was the other way around, I would fully expect your question to be, “Why are you riding roughshod over the devolution settlement?” This is a devolved payment. It was devolved under the 2016 Scotland Act, along with a whole host of other devolved welfare payments, and therefore the money is …”

“You have answered your own question, if you don’t mind me saying, because adult disability payments are devolved. The funding of that is subsequently devolved. The decisions about adult disability payments in Scotland lie with the Scottish Government, not the UK Government. Therefore, the certainty you are demanding fo…”

“It is higher than the rest of the UK.”

“You are probably going to be able to tell me, but it is probably somewhere in the region of 300,000.”

“It is really important to be clear, Madam Chair, that the £5 billion reduction that has been touted is a £5 billion reduction in the increase, not £5 billion from the current Budget. That is why the impact on the Scottish budget is zero, in terms of what is being produced. Going forward, those figures will be announced…”