« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
Building a Better Scotland
FINANCE AND PUBLIC SERVICES
To plan and prudently manage the public finances; deliver excellence in public services; support growing Scotland's economy; enable local democracy to flourish; promote Scotland's international image; and communicate and explain the Executive's activities throughout Scotland, the UK and abroad.
Objective 1 | | To secure, with local government, improvement in local authority services and improvement in the wider public sector. |
Target | 1 | Make government in Scotland more efficient and release 500m of recurring efficiency savings for investment in frontline services by March 2008. |
Target | 2 | Over the Spending Review period to March 2008, deliver through local authorities and their partners continued improvements in the quality of life for local communities across Scotland, by building on the local environmental and local service improvements supported by Quality of Life funding, consistent with the Executive's commitment to support safer, stronger communities. |
Target | 3 | Provide financial support for the completion by 2007 - in partnership with all 32 local authorities - of a programme for delivering more convenient and responsive public services which encourages the take up of online access to key services and ensures that at least 75 per cent of service requests can be dealt with at 'first contact'. |
Objective 2 | | To advance Scotland's place in Europe and the wider world by maximising Scotland's influence within the European Union, building mutually beneficial links with other countries and regions, promoting Scotland abroad, and attracting fresh talent to live and work in Scotland. |
Target | 4 | Promote Scotland overseas - guided by the existing European Strategy and the developing International Strategy - in close co-operation with delivery partners. This will include a new project to promote Scotland's international image, launched in July 2004 and running throughout the Spending Review period to March 2008. |
Target | 5 | Over the Spending Review period to March 2008, attract and retain high numbers of people from outwith Scotland who come to live, work and study in Scotland by implementing the Fresh Talent initiative, including the establishment of a Relocation Advisory Service to provide tailored advice and a signposting service to those considering relocating to Scotland. |
What we will do
We will work to improve the delivery of public services, promote local democracy and support conditions for wealth creation that will benefit all in Scotland.
In everything that we do we are committed to ensuring that we work to grow the economy, promote equality and close the opportunity gap, and ensure that our activities meet the requirements of sustainable development. More detailed information about the Executive's work in these cross-cutting areas is given in the cross-cutting chapters earlier.
Local authorities have a key role in delivering frontline services such as education, community care and transport. This is recognised in our continued commitment to delivering excellence in public services. We will also promote an image of a modern, vibrant and diverse Scotland as an attractive place to visit, with which to do business, and in which to study and live.
To do this, over the Spending Review period we will:
- increase revenue support grant for local authorities over the allocation for 2005-06 by 272/469m, to maintain existing services and in addition provide;
- further support in education for families with young children;
- a significant increase in resources for residential and home based care for the elderly to meet the projected demand for additional numbers requiring care and for improvements in the quality of the service;
- additional investment in the police service to increase police numbers and meet the additional demands placed upon them;
- significant extra resources to enable councils reduce their backlog of roads maintenance;
- additional provision for environmental programmes to meet higher standards in waste collection and disposal; and
- maintained provision for the services already being provided;
- invest 31m in 2006-07 and 2007-08 in a combined fund to continue the work of the Efficient Government Fund and Modernising Government Fund, building on the investment of 60m in 2005-06 for both funds;
- provide continued investment to 2008 in the new Improvement Service so that it can focus on delivering efficient solutions to local authorities and their partners which will bring continuous improvement in services for people across Scotland;
- maintain in real terms a dedicated source of infrastructure investment funding for our six cities through our continued support for the Cities Growth Fund, demonstrating our commitment to the sustainable economic growth of Scotland's City-Regions and our confidence in local authorities and their Community Planning partners to deliver their City Vision strategies;
- continue to support a range of locally-determined projects to improve people's quality of life, through the Quality of Life funding. We have already invested 180m in Quality of Life funding from 2003-06, supporting a range of projects from community safety schemes to providing better play facilities, and we will invest a further 50m per annum from 2006-08;
- take forward the Independent Review of Local Government Finance, as agreed in the Partnership Agreement;
- publish a Scottish Capital Investment Plan. We will develop delivery vehicles and funding options - including PPP, funds from financial markets, and taking account of the new Prudential Regime - which enable the efficient and timely delivery of infrastructure projects across the public sector;
- enhance voter choice and representation by introducing the proportional Single Transferable Vote System for the next local government elections in 2007, along with initiatives to widen access to council membership and new remuneration arrangements for councillors; and
- spend 4m each year on targeted marketing and promotion of Scotland to supplement and enhance the efforts of others in the public and private sectors to promote Scotland internationally. Provide an additional 0.5m to fund a prestigious scholarship scheme for Scotland and 0.3m to establish a Relocation Advisory Service.
We will also ensure that we secure the best possible value for money over the Spending Review period. More detailed information about our work in these cross-cutting areas is given in the cross-cutting chapters earlier. The Efficient Government team within Finance and Central Services Department (FCSD) will co-ordinate the Efficient Government initiative across the public sector. FCSD officials will take forward a series of specific projects including:
- improving procurement across the public sector, realising 200m of annual savings;
- working with the Office of the Permanent Secretary, developing a programme of shared support services for Executive agencies and NDPBs; and
- streamlining bureaucracy in areas of scrutiny, regulation and performance monitoring, freeing management to deliver greater efficiencies and staff to deliver frontline services.
Within the Finance and Public Services portfolio itself, we intend to realise savings of 247.4m by 2007-08 through efficiency savings in Local Government and the Agencies and NDPBs that fall within the responsibility of this portfolio.
Full details will be published in the autumn in the Efficient Government plan.
Table 12.01 Spending plans 2004-08 (level 2)
m | 2004-05 Plans | 2005-06 Plans | 2006-07 Plans | 2007-08 Plans |
Local Government |
Revenue (AEF) (1) | 7,737.22 | 8,028.00 | 8,306.45 | 8,503.82 |
Capital (FPS) (2) | 385.46 | 395.46 | 407.97 | 413.70 |
Total FPS Local Government | 8,122.68 | 8,423.46 | 8,714.42 | 8,917.52 |
Other Public Services Expenditure |
Committees, Commissions and Other Expenditure (3) | 22.05 | 26.58 | 35.54 | 44.22 |
Modernising/Efficient Government Fund | 31.00 | 59.87 | 15.23 | 15.76 |
Total Other Public Services Expenditure | 53.05 | 86.45 | 50.77 | 59.98 |
Scottish Public Pensions Agency(4) | 995.78 | 1,086.38 | 1,159.27 | 1,231.33 |
Total | 9,171.51 | 9,596.29 | 9,924.46 | 10,208.83 |
DEL Total(5) | 6,311.69 | 6,510.85 | 6,779.46 | 7,011.83 |
(1) Reflects transfers, since 2004-05 AER was published of 84.6/158.4/158.4/158.4m, to DWP for Housing and Council Tax Benefit payments, to Communities portfolio in respect of BNSF now included in Communities Regeneration Fund and an adjustment for Residential Allowance.
(2) Includes Cities Growth Fund 30/40/41/42m: Incentives Fund of 10m each year; 3m in 06-07 for possible capital expenditure on e-voting systems; and supported borrowing of 290.5/290.5/297.7/305.2m (but excludes estimated borrowing of 306.6/319.2/317.2/330.0m by local authorities under the prudential regime).
(3) Other Expenditure consists mainly of expenditure on the central advertising budget 10/8.7/8.7/8.7m and Fresh Talent and Promoting Scotland's International Image 1.8/9.5/9.5/9.5m.
(4) SPPA expenditure consists of net running costs of 7.6/7.5/8.1/8.1m; capital 0.2/0.2/5.0/5.0m (reflecting the additional provision of 10m over 06-07 and 07-08 for the introduction of new IT systems); net pensions scheme expenditure (in AME) 995.8/1086.4/1159.3/1231.3m.
(5) Excludes AME provision of 2,860/3,085/3,145/3,197m for SPPA (986/1,077/1,144/1,216m) and non-domestic rate income (1,874/2,009/2,001/1,981m).
« Previous | Contents | Next »