Hansard

Local Government Finance

Volume 170: debated on Monday 2 April 1990

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Mr. Salmond

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland on what date the accounting system in the Scottish Office indicated that £4 million was available to fund poll tax ex gratia payments; and from which spending head this money came.

Mr. Rifkind

This finance will be provided as part of the normal process of managing the resources available to me in the course of 1990–91.

Mr. Salmond

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what discussions he has held with Mr. Michael Hirst on the spending head from which he has found £4 million on the Scottish Office budget to finance additional poll tax ex gratia payments.

Mr. Salmond

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether the accounting system in the Scottish Office has now identified any further savings over and above the £4 million allocated to poll tax ex gratia payments; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Rifkind

It is too early to identify the full extent of the changes in requirements for specific spending programmes which may occur during the financial year.

Mr. Wallace

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will prepare a table illustrating the impact, in each islands and district council area, of a system which combines local income tax with capital value-based domestic rates, making the same assumptions as those used by the hon. Member for Wirral, West (Mr. Hunt) in respect of a similar table prepared for English local authority areas in a written answer to the hon. Member for Portsmouth, South (Mr. Martin) on 6 November 1989, Official Report, column 415.

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

The table provided in the answer of 6 November 1989 referred to in the hon. Member's question was prepared on the assumption that English local authorities would budget for 1990–91 in line with their standard spending assessments, the Scottish equivalent of which is grant-aided expenditure (GAE) figures.As it is now clear that some Scottish authorities have budgeted to spend below their GAE figure and others above it, I do not think I can justify committing the substantial resources needed to producing a table which would clearly be of no practical significance.