Pauline McNeill, MSP: Sometimes only tough scrutiny will do

Published on Monday 17 January 2011 21:47

The Scotland Bill committee, chaired by my colleague Wendy Alexander, is scrutinising legislation that will have a profound influence on the future financing of Scotland's services. If we get this wrong, it will leave a hole in the finances of our schools and hospitals that will be felt in every community.

But some correspondents seem to think it is wrong for the committee to robustly question the academic evidence on which the SNP government has based its case for devolving further tax powers.

In fact, it was the Scottish Government which asked the committee to look at fiscal autonomy. The SNP's Fiona Hyslop said it was "important" that MSPs should examine the evidence.

When the First Minister addressed the SNP conference last October, he told delegates that with economic powers we could grow the Scottish economy by an extra 1 per cent a year. I agree that if this was true it would be an important consideration and the committee should rigorously scrutinise it.

Professors Andrew Hughes Hallett and Drew Scott, who appeared before the committee last week, are the two foremost academic supporters of the idea that Scotland should raise all or most of its own taxes. It was their research that the Scottish Government cited in its own paper on fiscal autonomy and used in their discussions with the Treasury in meetings that took place over the summer.

The reason the SNP is now trying to whip up a row over process is that thanks to the committee's questions, we now know that Alex Salmond and John Swinney misrepresented the research.

The two professors have every right to be angry about this, but the SNP hadn't even made them aware of the way in which their work was being used. It is the evidence that counts here. Most sensible people know that devolving more tax powers won't in itself wave a magic wand over the Scottish economy. What matters is how those powers are used. The committee's job is to examine the proposals in the Scotland Bill and the alternative fiscal powers that could be given to the parliament.

They should be allowed to do it properly.