A lack of recent meetings between the Scottish Government and the Treasury is an “issue of concern”, First Minister John Swinney has said ahead of the Chancellor’s spending review.
Rachel Reeves will lay out her spending priorities on Wednesday, with funding increases expected for the NHS and education – which will result in greater cash for Scotland.
But speaking to the PA news agency in Glasgow on Monday, First Minister John Swinney said his Finance Secretary Shona Robison had not recently spoken to the Treasury about the Scottish Government’s requests for the review.
“The Finance Secretary has had discussions with the Chief Secretary, but not recently,” he said.
“That’s been an issue of concern to us that there hasn’t been an ongoing dialogue.
“I raised our aspirations about the spending review with the Prime Minister when I met him a couple of weeks ago in London and have set out, particularly, the importance of the investment in public services and the necessity of that decision on the Acorn carbon capture and storage project, because that is crucial for us finding a way forward to address some of the challenges that we faced at the Grangemouth site.”
The Acorn project has been overlooked for funding by successive UK Governments, angering Scottish ministers.
As well as Acorn, Mr Swinney also urged the Chancellor to commit to lifting the two-child benefit cap.
“After all the year’s of Conservative austerity, I want to see a decision to lift the two-child cap from the benefit system, which is forcing more and more families into poverty and children into poverty,” he said.
The Scottish Government has pledged to mitigate the impact of the two-child cap north of the border, but has consistently pushed for the policy to be scrapped at UK level.
The First Minister also pushed for a “different approach on welfare reform”, after the UK Government announced a £5 billion cut to benefits earlier this year.
The Treasury has been contacted for comment.
