UK Union dividend of £1,941 for every person in Scotland

Commenting on the Scottish Government GERS figures, Alister Jack said:

The Scottish Government’s own figures show clearly how much Scotland benefits from being part of a strong United Kingdom, with the pooling and sharing of resources that brings. People in Scotland, year after year, benefit from levels of public spending substantially above the United Kingdom average, with a Union dividend of £1,941 per person in Scotland.

That has never been more important than it is right now. In the face of a global pandemic, the strength and experience of the UK Treasury is helping people in Scotland and across the rest of the United Kingdom.

The UK Government is currently supporting more than 930,000 jobs in Scotland – a third of the workforce. This is just one part of a huge package of measures to get our economy back on track, on top of an extra £6.5 billion for the Scottish Government to fund public services in Scotland. We will continue to back all parts of the UK as we recover from the economic impact of coronavirus.

Background

• The figures from the Scottish Government show Scotland’s notional deficit rose from £13.1 billion in 2018-19 to £15.1 billion in 2019-20. This is more than Scotland’s entire health budget for the year, which was £13.8 billion in 2019-20.

• The ‘Union dividend’ per person in Scotland (the combined value of higher spending and lower revenue) was £1,941 in 2019-20. This was an increase from £1,805 in 2018-19

• Public expenditure per person in Scotland in 2019-20 was £1,633 higher than the UK average.

• Revenue per person in Scotland remained below the UK average. In 2019-20, including an illustrative geographical share of North Sea revenue, revenue per person was £308 lower than the UK average. This was a substantial change from 2018-19 when revenue per head was £171 lower than the UK average.

• Total expenditure for the benefit of Scotland increased from £78,598 million in 2018-19, to £81,015 million in 2019-20.

• As a percentage of Scotland’s GDP the notional deficit increased from -7.4% in 2018-19 to -8.6% in 2019-20. For comparison the UK’s deficit rose from -1.9% of GDP to -2.5% over the same period. New members of the EU are required to have a deficit less than 3% of GDP. The OECD reports that in 2019 the other EU countries with the highest deficits were France (-3%), Spain (-2.8%) and Hungary (-2%).

• Non-North Sea revenue in Scotland grew by 1.7% in 2019-20, while Non-North Sea revenue growth in the UK as a whole was 1.9%.

• Income tax receipts in Scotland grew 1.5% from 2018-19 to 2019-20, the same as across the UK.

• Including a geographic share of North Sea revenue Scotland’s total revenue in 2019-20 was £65,878 million, up slightly from £65,442 million in 2018-19. For 2019-20 this represented 8% of all UK revenues, slightly down from 8.1% in 2018-19.

• This change reflects the fact that Scottish North Sea revenue fell by £642 million in 2019-20, due in part to the fall in oil prices toward the end of the year.