SNP urged to detail £750m transfer plan

THE Scottish Government has been urged to publish “full details” of its plans to transfer £750 million of cash to the part of its budget that funds major infrastructure projects.

As part of his spending plans, finance secretary John Swinney announced he was diverting cash from the resource budget to the capital budget.

The move is aimed at boosting economic recovery by funding large-scale projects like roads, hospitals and schools that will in turn create jobs.

However, Holyrood’s influential Finance Committee said it was “concerning” that information requested by two committees on this “key aspect of the Scottish Government’s economic strategy” had not been communicated to it.

A report by the committee said that both the Economy Committee and the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee had highlighted a “lack of clarity in relation to the Scottish Government’s resource to capital transfer plans”.

MSPs on the Finance Committee therefore recommended that “the Scottish Government publishes full details of its resource to capital transfer plans” adding that if ministers did not do this they should “explain why that is not possible”.