Swinney unveils Scottish OBR-style watchdog plans

PLANS to create a separate Scottish OBR-style economic watchdog were unveiled today by finance secretary John Swinney.

John Swinney: watchdog plans. Picture: TSPL

It follows public spats between the SNP Government and the London-based Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) over the value of North Sea oil predictions and new taxes being devolved to Scotland.

Mr Swinney told Holyrood’s finance committee he wants the new body up and running by 2015 when Scotland takes on new responsibility for stamp duty landfill tax, income tax.

“We acquire a certain responsibility that will be about revenue raising,” Mr Swinney said today.

“My view is that Scotland will require to have an independent forecasting body that can provide independent assessments to both the Government and the Parliament about what we will generate as a result of these taxes and I’m giving consideration to how that would be established.

“I would want that to be in place to be able to give meaningful input to the process in the run up to the implementation of these proposals in 2015.”

The SNP Government was prompted to produce its own oil and gas estimates earlier this year, amid concern that the OBR predictions were too low. The OBR predicted oil tax revenue will drop from £6.7bn last year to £4.1 bn by 2017-18, but the Scottish Government figures were considerably higher with estimates of up to £57 billion in tax revenue by 2018.