Question reference: S6W-12227
- Asked by: Alexander Stewart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 16 November 2022 Registered interest
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Current status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 November 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on tobacco control overall in each year since 2017-18.
Answer
Local Authorities undertake tobacco control through tobacco sales enforcement and tobacco and electronic cigarette control.
The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on tobacco control, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.
The Scottish Government has increased local government funding by over £1 billion in 2022-23, a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent, despite a 5.2 per cent real terms reduction in the overall Scottish Budget.