Scottish Government faces union warning over spending measures

Public finance minister Ivan McKee will this afternoon (Thursday) unveil details of the crackdown which aims to reduce "wasteful" spending by the state amid major financial pressures.
It is understood the proposals will increase the amount of cash saved over the following five years so that by 2029/30 the government will be saving by up to £1 billion annually on backroom operations.
The strategy is expected to set out how substantial savings can be made through collaborative working across organisations focusing on reducing demand for services such as the NHS through preventation such as policies to reduce diseases and social harms caused by poverty.
READ MORE:
But the government's proposals will also seek to reduce waste through more efficient procurement, cutting the cost of managing estates and buildings, the removal of duplication and the enhanced use of automation while aiming to improve the delivery of frontline services such as health and education.
A major review of civil service is not being ruled out with the Scottish Government's 55 directorates potentially facing a restructure and a reduction in their number.
It is expected that the cash-saving proposals will highlight too a possible need to "consolidate" Scotland's 130 quangos with cost-cutting mergers between bodies potentially being undertaken.
However, in comments which could raise the prospect of future battles between trade unions and public sector employers, Ms Foyer warned: "You can't fix public services by cutting the people who deliver them."
STUC general secretary Roz Foyer (Image: Newsquest) She told The Herald: 'It's illogical to talk about reducing headcount while NHS waiting times, A&E delays and social care backlogs are at crisis levels all while local government is all but being cleared out.
'Scotland deserves high-quality public services that are fully funded, resilient and responsive. That means investing in the workforce, not undermining it. We aren't against reform, far from it."
She went on to say that while there was much public debate around artificial intelligence (AI) and technological change, "an ageing population will require greater investment in services delivered by people, not machines".
Public finance minister Ivan McKee (Image: Scottish Government) First Minister John Swinney discussed the thinking behind the strategy when he addressed public sector leaders in Glasgow on Monday telling his audience the sector will shrink as services look to innovations like AI and his government plans to embark on a 'renewal' of public services by harnessing new technologies.
Mr Swinney also noted the findings of the Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services in Scotland, chaired by Dr Campbell Christie in 2011, which had been tasked with examining the long-term challenges facing public services—including budget pressures, demographic change, rising demand and persistent inequalities.
The Commission's report called for community-driven, preventative and collaborative approaches to address systemic challenges. Key recommendations included prioritising prevention to reduce long-term costs, enhancing performance through technology, and closer working across sectors.
And in his speech on Monday, Mr Swinney referred to the creation of Police Scotland, where the country's eight police forces were amalgamated into one organisation, as one of the "key successes" from the Christie report noting the restructure had "led to over £200m in savings".
But Ms Foyer told The Herald workers had paid a price to previous public sector changes.
"Ministers must learn from the Christie Commission and the harsh lessons of the pandemic, whereby workers were thrown to the wolves, because of under-resourced services," she said.
'Before charging ahead, the Scottish Government must engage meaningfully with trade unions. We have made it clear to ministers that we will not support any plan that puts public services or public service workers at risk.
"Politicians across the political spectrum need to face up to the fact that total tax revenues will have to rise in the coming years. The real question the Scottish Government and others are ducking is how they will do that fairly, using Scotland's devolved tax powers, to support our public sector workers.
Mr McKee's strategy comes a week ahead of the Scottish Government's publication of its medium term fiscal strategy and follows warnings of a challenging financial landscape for the administration.
In its latest five-year outlook last month the fiscal watchdog, the Scottish Fiscal Commission, forecast that the country's public finances will come under increasing strain over the next five years, due to rising welfare costs, sluggish economic growth and an £851 million income tax black hole.
Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee pledged that Scotland's approach to public service reform will help deliver the fairer future that people in Scotland want.
Mr McKee said: 'The strategy for public service reform that I have developed and will present to Parliament is all about doing things better, not doing less. It will enable Scotland to lead our own agenda on reform, not follow that of others.
'One of this government's key priorities is to improve public services.
'We are clear that everyone in Scotland should have access to services that are efficient, good quality and effective. We are also clear that this is about putting more funding into frontline services and investing in and empowering public service workers to deliver what people need.
'A key aim will be to identify systemic barriers that have prevented progress and to shift where and how investments are made, to take a more preventative approach – optimising the impact of our funding, making services more sustainable in the long term and making a real difference to people's lives.'

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

The Herald Scotland

an hour ago

• The Herald Scotland

They feel unloved. They're angry. And they have very big tractors

'What's the most valuable cup you've got in here, then?' I venture to ask him. 'What do you think it is?' he replies a little enigmatically. My eyes alight on a large gold cup that looks much grander and elegant than anything you'll see being handed out to winning football teams. He doesn't quite say 'you've chosen wisely,' but I know that's what he's thinking. 'How much do you think it's worth?' he asks me. 'Maybe 25 grand,' say I. He's shaking his head. 'Add a zero and bit more on top,' he says. 'You're joking,' say I. 'Nope: £320,000.' It's called the Paisley Perpetual Gold Challenge Cup and it will go to the beast of the tournament. There's also a lovely, unadorned gold cup that was gifted by HM Queen Elizabeth (God rest her wee soul). But it's the tractors and the combine harvesters I've mainly come here for. At an agricultural exhibition last year I'd noticed entire squadrons of these metal amazons lined up in military formation as though set for battle. I hadn't realised how big their tractors had become and resolved to attend this Royal Highland Show to see them close up. You could chib castles with these machines and I've always wanted to drive one. Charlie Webber is the High Horsepower Product Tractor Product Specialist for CNS, one of the UK's top tractor outfits. It more or less means he's responsible for the big chaps. 'What are these coming in at, Charlie?' We're standing beside a gorgeous big red tractor that comes with its own ladders to access the cockpit. 'That one's about £400k,' he says. If you fitted it with machine guns, there's not much that would stop it, I'm thinking. He tells me the market's 'steady' right now, though there are still post-Covid challenges. 'People who are re-investing in their equipment are finding it a little more challenging to get a return on what they're producing,' he says. 'With inflation, everything's got more expensive.' They're beasts of burden though, which pay for themselves after several years of hard labour in all weathers. They literally and figuratively drive a farm's economy: rock solid investment vehicles, if you like. I've still retained my childhood fascination for them, though and so has Mr Webber. When you see one of these as a child you thrill to them and it never really leaves you. Same with the combine harvesters, especially when you see them threshing the barley and oats and spitting it out their chimneys. The Morris family (Image: Newsquest) 'If you're born on a farm or near a farm, your earliest memory is when you're sat inside one as a child as it works the fields,' he says. 'They're built for next-level comfort too because at the height of the seasons you'll be doing 16-hour days.' Neil Redpath's family firm have been making tyres to the agricultural industry for 45 years and I'm asking him why the tractors are getting so big. 'Basically, there aren't people putting their bums on the seats,' he says. 'Once, you might have had four tractors, now you have two doing the work of four, so they have to be bigger. That tractor has to do so many more different jobs, when once you'd have a separate one to do the spraying. There are fewer people wanting to work the hours. 'Covid was a watershed, but it's been happening since before then. More than 80% of people who leave us do so because we work Saturday mornings, 8 until noon, even though we pay double time plus 37 quid for coming out on a Saturday. They tell us it interrupts their weekends, especially if they've been out late the night before.' I'm thinking the social life in Scotland's more remote places must be a bit more jaggy and jumpy than I'd previously thought. 'Our main challenge as a tyre firm is to get all that power into the ground without the tyre collapsing. These machines have grown in tonnage and we need to calculate exactly what pressure you need to carry that piece of equipment.' Read more Welcome to our book festival. It's diverse, inclusive but don't forget your pronouns Then I spot a lad called Harrison Morris whose T-shirt, I've decided, wins best in show. The wee man's a wheelchair-user and his shirt bears the legend: 'Everything hurts and I'm dying'. He's down from Shetland with his family, including his grandpa, Bill and mum, dad and sister: Steve, Louise and Neveah. Bill, a retired chef, has been coming here for many years. 'It's the best show in Scotland,' he says. The Royal Highland Show has been going for more than 200 years. It's one of those events you've heard about often and meant to visit, but never quite got round to. Plus, being full of farmers and country types, you might struggle to acclimatise. What hits you first is the scale of this event. This showground, beside Edinburgh Airport, becomes not a circus or a village but a small township. Today, there are easily more than 50,000 which will build to almost 200,000 when it finishes tomorrow. More than 1,000 retail and hospitality units provide the esoteric weft and warp of rural life: their hardy, utilitarian apparel; their no-messing-about food: the glamping-pods and wooden tents. It's not your world, but you fall into step with it. And then there's the accents and dialects: the whas, the yins, the kens and the whitaboots that a persistent Glaswegian needs to hear once in a while as a release from our pure glo'al mono-verse. You need also to be reminded that around 80% of Scotland's land-mass is put to agricultural production and that you're not living in an urban townscape, but in a rural realm with the odd concrete settlement here and there. More than 70,000 Scottish jobs are directly sustained by Scotland's rural economy and around 350,000 others are dependent on it. Agriculture is the third largest employer in rural Scotland behind the public sector and the service sector. And right now, it's a community that feels unloved and under-appreciated. They remain angry at last year's inheritance tax rises, which they feel represented a cheap early broadside by a feckless Labour administration to soften up its core supporters, knowing they'd be taking an axe to social the social welfare budget a few months later. The trophy room (Image: Newsquest) The farmers have feared cuts in their livestock numbers ever since the Scottish Greens began throwing their weight around at Holyrood. The Greens hate everything to do with farming: the machinery, the red meat and the greenhouse emissions from coos' arses. A rule of thumb operates in Scotland though: if the Greens are against you then you must be doing something right. The UK's National Climate Change Committee has been pushing for a reduction in livestock numbers leading to fears among meat farmers that lower quality American beef producers will exploit this under the new trade deal. In this setting, Keir Starmer is perceived as a weak leader eager to do anything to please an excitable American president. Scottish Secretary Ian Murray is making an appearance at the UK Government's tented enclosure so I join in a mini agricultural media huddle gathered around him. Glen Barclay of the Scottish Farmer (supporting farmers in Scotland since 1893, by the way) kindly suggests a question I might ask to make it look as though I'm fully conversant with these issues. Mr Murray seems to be enjoying himself and looks relaxed. He even extends me an invitation to join him later in a dram at a Scotch Whisky Society event, which I must refuse. He bats away all the questions rather easily with variations on the theme of 'The UK Government won't be altering its inheritance tax provisions for anyone, but we've had friendly discussions with the National Farmers Union to show that we're at least listening to them.' I can't keep away from those tractors, though and Charlie Webber hesitantly permits me to climb inside one. It's got a big bouncy seat and there's plenty of room for your sausage rolls and ginger. Gordon the photographer sees my guard is down and begins snapping away with his vulpine grin, but I'm not giving one single flying f***.

Daily Record

an hour ago

• Daily Record

Older windfarms won't increase East Ayrshire community benefit cash says council

East Ayrshire Council said that other benefits, such as job training support were getting developer support Attempts to increase the amount of money older wind farms give East Ayrshire's communities were met with a firm 'No' according to East Ayrshire Council's head of economic development. However, other moves around training and employment are being backed by developers and energy companies. ‌ The likes of Whitelee Wind Farm, once the biggest in Europe, agreed their level of community benefits before the introduction of guidance from the Scottish Government more than a decade ago. ‌ While there is no legal requirement to offer money to create renewable energy funds, it has become standard practice to offer £5,000 per MW of power produced, as recommended by the Scottish Government. However, this figure was suggested in 2014, with older windfarms often agreeing far less. Whitelee Wind Farm, the largest in the UK and formerly in Europe, agreed to pay just £1,000 per MW, with a subsequent extension application securing an increase to £2,500. Many residents and groups have argued that they should be getting more, especially in areas where there is a significant density of facilities, such as the south end of East Ayrshire. But, David McDowall, Head of Economic Growth at East Ayrshire Council told councillors that many developers were also facing financial struggles. At a meeting of East Ayrshire Cabinet this week, he recommended that no changes be made to the way renewable energy funds are distributed and applied for. ‌ Currently, wind farm funds are limited to communities within 10km of a facility for the first 10 years of operation, with half then being opened up to the whole of East Ayrshire after that period. However, an amendment last year, saw that, before broadening to the whole of the authority, a review to determine whether there was a greater need to maintain the 10km restriction. Whitelee reached that threshold in 2023 and now splits the funding for both the original £1,000 and the subsequent £2,500 for the extension. ‌ Mr McDowall explained: 'A review will be undertaken to assess whether parts of the fund should indeed be made available to a wider spatial area. 'This review will take account of the ongoing need and demand for funding within the 10km buffer and the wider funding landscape beyond the 10km buffer taking cognisance of what funding will be available to the the other relevant communities.' He said the disparity had been discussed with Scottish Power and that they were looking a number of areas to provide 'real opportunities' for communities. ‌ Mr McDowall continued: 'We've recently introduced the Whitelee skills fund which will deliver 30 apprentices and 30 interns along with pre employment training.' However, a push to increase the amount provided by those who had agreed the lower payments per MW has been unsuccessful. He said: 'One of the kind of asks has been, can we get the the the funding updated from the £1,000 or £2,500 to £5,000. ‌ 'We were given a resounding no initially, but discussions are ongoing and there's a proposal to meet between the leaders of East Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire to take forward discussions directly with the Scottish Government. 'It is now common place across Scotland that developers work directly with community groups to agree community benefits rather than paying into the the fund so while the renewable energy fund for East Ayrshire remains a viable option for developers it is now one that's being used far less.' Mr McDowall set out the work undertaken by the Nine CC group, a coalition of nine communities in the south of the authority, who have come to together to make better, more strategic, use of the funds each was receiving from community benefits. ‌ However, he did acknowledge that 'several in farm developers are facing challenging financial circumstances and and obviously issues like grid connections as well and that's requiring them in some industries to reprofile their community benefit commitments.' Councillor Iain Linton, Cabinet member for resources and economy said: 'I think it sums up well where we are just now. 'Obviously we're anticipating the Nine CC fund getting up and running in the the near future and that will take a bit of the strain off the the the sharing of the the Whitelee money. ‌ 'I think they seem to be quite keen in the projects that we've supported in the past.' He also said that Scottish Power had showcased a number of the projects in East Ayrshire and hoped that the company would work with the council to promote and potentially expand the apprentice and intern programme. Mr McDowall responded: 'I think they nearly bit my hand off when we suggested it. ‌ 'So they do want, let's say, the accolades that go along with their funding going towards these apprenticeships. 'We're also working with Ayrshire College and and looking at trying to bring some of the pre-apprenticeship training that is delivered both centrally in Glasgow and Edinburgh towards Ayrshire College. 'Obviously we know that there's a a gap in the renewable sector.' He said that both companies were losing staff but also investing in work in East Ayrshire. He added: 'What we're trying to do is to get a lot of those vacancies filled with residents within East Ayrshire.' Cabinet approved the report.

Spectator

an hour ago

• Spectator

MPs back assisted dying: what next?

MPs have voted – by a narrow 23-vote margin – in favour of legalising assisted dying. Bizarrely, the 51.9 to 48.1 per cent breakdown is the exact same as the 2016 referendum result, although hopefully this issue doesn't divide the Labour party in the same way that Brexit did for the Tories. The whole process is far from 'Parliament at its best', as it has often been claimed. Despite hours of passionate and emotional debate, key concerns about the drafting of the bill forced some who would naturally back assisted dying to oppose it. The overwhelming feeling is that a private member's bill was not the right forum for this kind of legislation. So what comes next? The bill will now pass to the House of Lords, after which comes the business of putting the measures into practice. This raises a multitude of problems for the Labour government, as it must now decide, for example, whether the responsibility will fall on the NHS or private doctors; who will pay for it; and what legal protections will be given to doctors and nurses. Other key questions remain: did Keir Starmer break a voting pact with David Lammy? And how could the decision to go against the party impact ambitious members of the shadow cabinet? Lucy Dunn, James Hale and Rajiv Shah, former adviser in No. 10, discuss. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.