SNP rejects Calman plan for future of devolution

Published on Wednesday 3 June 2009 22:04

THE SNP has warned that plans to redraw Scotland's financial relationship with the UK would create a constitutional mess.

As revealed in The Scotsman yesterday, the commission studying the future of devolution, chaired by Sir Kenneth Calman, proposes that the Barnett Formula should be scrapped and replaced with assigned revenues from the proportion of taxes raised in Scotland.

However, this would not include Scotland's share of oil and gas revenue and Holyrood would get no new tax-raising powers, although it could be allowed limited borrowing powers.

SNP Treasury spokesman Stewart Hosie said Calman's compromise would just create another constitutional mess.

"The best position is for the Scottish Parliament to have full control of the financial levers that can fight recession and deliver jobs and prosperity," Mr Hosie said. "That includes powers over taxation and Scotland's oil and gas revenue to invest in our future."

However, he agreed the Barnett formula, dreamed up in the 1970s, was no longer sustainable.