Letter: No manipulation

I WISH to respond to the suggestion made by Professor Arthur Midwinter (Perspective, 3 February) that the Scottish Government has “manipulated” government reports to support the case for independence. Professor Midwinter’s claims are baseless.

Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) is a National Statistics publication. This means that it is produced by Scottish Government statisticians and is entirely independent of any input from Scottish ministers or special advisers.

Ministers and special advisers are given pre-release access to the publication only after it has been sent to the printers. Contrary to the suggestion in your article, there has been no political interference in the report.

With regards to the reporting of Scotland’s fiscal position, GERS provides two measures of Scotland’s public sector finances – the current budget balance (which excludes capital spending) and the net fiscal balance (which includes all spending).

This is identical to the presentation of the UK fiscal position used by the Treasury and the OBR when reporting the UK’s public sector finances.

Finally, on the presentation of Scotland’s fiscal position during the National Conversation, it is wrong to suggest, as Prof Midwinter does, that the Scottish Government “fails completely to highlight the more meaningful net fiscal deficit”. Page 32 of the National Conversation White Paper Your Scotland Your Voice reports Scotland’s current budget balance and net fiscal balance.

I am committed to ensuring that the independence debate is informed by rigorous analysis, and that the people of Scotland are provided with the full facts on the constitutional debate.

Anyone who attended my lecture to the David Hume Institute on Thursday would have heard a rigorous analysis of the strength of Scotland’s fiscal position, and the platform that creates to deliver more with independence.

John Swinney

Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth

Holyrood

Edinburgh