Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential difference between projections and actual Scottish income tax receipts from the fiscal framework mechanisms.

The fiscal framework agreement explicitly included new tools to help the Scottish Government manage the additional volatility in its funding in relation to tax and welfare devolution, including from forecast error.

This includes the creation of the new £700 million Scotland Reserve, which the Scottish Government can use to save receipts that are higher than forecast and drawdown funding when receipts are lower than forecast. The framework also includes the ability, in normal times, to borrow up to £300 million per year in relation to tax and welfare forecast error. Under the terms of the fiscal framework, we have doubled this limit to £600 million per year in 2021-22 and the following two years.