Chamber and committees

The Council of Economic Advisers meets twice a year and provides advice on improving the competitiveness of the Scottish economy and tackling inequality in Scotland.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies published the analysis referred to on 19 March 2015. The latest meeting of the Council of Economic Advisers was held on 3 March 2015, prior to this publication.

The Scottish Government believes that the analysis by the UK Treasury does not provide a meaningful description of the fiscal position in a fiscally autonomous Scotland as it simply projects forward Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland.

The fiscal position would depend on a range of factors including the transition process, the negotiated fiscal framework between Scotland and the rest of the UK, Scotland’s contribution to UK wide public services such as defence and international aid, as well as the decisions made by the Scottish Government about economic policy, public spending and borrowing.

The Scottish Government believes that the analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies does not provide a meaningful description of the fiscal position in a fiscally autonomous Scotland as it simply projects forward Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland.

The fiscal position would depend on a range of factors including the transition process, the negotiated fiscal framework between Scotland and the rest of the UK, Scotland’s contribution to UK wide public services such as defence and international aid, as well as the decisions made by the Scottish Government about economic policy, public spending and borrowing.

The New Medicines Fund provided additional support to NHS boards for the cost of medicines approved under the new process implemented by the Scottish Medicines Consortium in line with the Task and Finish Group report provided to the Scottish Government and published by the Health and Sport Committee and related individual and group patient treatment requests.

The First Minister set out the Scottish Government’s position on this matter at First Minister’s Questions on 30 April 2015.

In July 2014, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service published their annual Hate Crime in Scotland publication. This report indicated that in 2013-14, 154 charges were reported to prosecutors with an aggravation of prejudice relating to disability, 12% more than in 2012-13 (17 additional charges). The report went on to advise that court proceedings were commenced in respect of 126 charges (82%), a higher proportion than in previous years. In total 130 (84%) of charges led to court proceedings, including those not separately prosecuted, but which may have been incorporated into other charges for the same accused.

The report indicated that no action was taken in respect of 7 charges (5%), a lower rate than in previous years. The most common reason for taking no action was the lack of sufficient admissible evidence for the substantial charge even though there was sufficient evidence for the disability aggravation associated with the charge. If there are no proceedings on the substantial charge, there can be no proceedings on an aggravation associated with the charge.

At the time this report was compiled, 13 charges (8%) were awaiting the outcome of further enquiries before a final decision on proceedings.

More generally, the report noted there is a broad consensus that disability-related hate crime may well be under reported compared to other forms of hate crime. Both Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service are engaged in a variety of activities aimed at increasing the level of awareness, especially amongst disability communities, that hate crime is unacceptable and should not be tolerated.

This is an operational matter for the Scottish Funding Council.