Scotland's economy

Fact checks related to the scottish economy, taxation and spending

15 February 2022

Wales and Scotland are getting money to fund a council tax rebate

Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford and Scottish Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said the countries would not be receiving more money as other areas of their provisional budgets are being revised down.

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20 October 2021

England hasn’t ‘kept’ £450 billion of Scottish taxes since 2001

A Facebook post claiming England has kept Scottish taxes ignores the money spent by the UK government for or in Scotland.

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1 February 2021

HS2 will not cost Scotland £17 billion

In effect, all money spent by Scotland on HS2 is returned through the Barnett formula.

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10 September 2019

Scotland doesn’t have the highest taxes in Europe

At his first Prime Minister’s questions, Boris Johnson incorrectly claimed Scotland has the highest taxes in Europe.

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12 October 2018

BBC Question Time: Recap and Factcheck

Question Time on 11 October 2018 came from Edinburgh. Topics covered included Universal Credit, Brexit and education in Scotland and the line-up included Kezia Dugdale, Mike Russell and Fraser Nelson.

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12 July 2018

Trump’s visit: what’s the cost?

The government has given £5 million to the Scottish Police to help with the costs of policing President Trump’s visit. Other police forces can also apply for special funding to cover the costs.

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1 June 2018

Would an independent Scotland have to keep the pound and cut public spending?

A report commissioned by the Scottish National Party recommends that an independent Scotland should not immediately change its currency from the pound.

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26 January 2018

NHS Scotland: how much is being spent?

NHS Scotland spending is planned to increase by £2 billion, accounting for projected inflation, between 2006/07 and 2018/19.

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26 January 2018

Scotland spends 20% more per head on public services than England

An increasing proportion of the Scottish government’s budget comes from taxes raised in Scotland, rather than the block grant.

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3 November 2017

How big is Scotland’s deficit compared to the UK as a whole?

The Scottish deficit is more than three times that of the UK as a whole, as a proportion of GDP.

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