Plenary, 09 Feb 2006

Meeting date: Thursday, February 9, 2006

Official Report 682KB pdf

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Budget (Scotland) (No 3) Bill: Stage 3

The next item of business is stage 3 proceedings on the Budget (Scotland) (No 3) Bill. I will make the usual announcement about the procedures that we will follow. First, we will deal with amendments to the bill. Then, we will move on to the debate on the motion to pass the bill. For the first part, members should have in front of them the bill, the marshalled list of amendments and the groupings. The division bell will sound and proceedings will be suspended for five minutes for the first division. The period of voting for that and any other division will be 30 seconds.

Schedule 1

The Scottish Administration

The one group of amendments consists of consequential amendments arising from previous budget revisions and other technical amendments. Amendment 1, in the name of the minister, is grouped with amendments 2 to 13.

The amendments are all minor, technical adjustments to bring the Budget (Scotland) (No 3) Bill into line with changes that we propose to make to the Budget (Scotland) Act 2005 through two budget revisions. One of those was approved by the Finance Committee on 10 January and then by the Parliament on 1 February. The other was laid in draft on 26 January and is due to be considered by the Finance Committee on 21 February.

In the past, we would not include anything in the current year's bill that appeared in the prior year's revision order, unless that order had been made. In this case, we feel that it is better for the text of the bill to reflect the most up-to-date position. As we still have an opportunity to amend the bill, we think that we should make the changes now. The alternative would be to wait until after the bill has been passed and to make the changes by way of a revision order in the autumn. By taking the opportunity to amend the Budget (Scotland) (No 3) Bill, we ensure that, when it is passed, it will give us as accurate a picture of the current position as is possible. Importantly, there are no amendments to any of the figures that are contained in the bill.

I move amendment 1.

Amendment 1 agreed to.

Amendments 2 to 7 moved—[Mr Tom McCabe]—and agreed to.

Schedule 2

Accruing resources of the Scottish Administration which may be used without individual limit

Amendments 8 to 12 moved—[Mr Tom McCabe]—and agreed to.

Schedule 3

Direct-funded bodies

Amendment 13 moved—[Mr Tom McCabe]—and agreed to.