Questions on Oil and Gas Windfall Tax in the Scottish Parliament

Oil and Gas Windfall Tax

2. Anas Sarwar (Glasgow) (Lab)

I join others in paying tribute to Her Majesty the Queen for her 70 years of dedicated commitment and service to the public of this country.

I welcome the development on the wearing of face masks, but, after almost two years, it will add anxiety for staff and workers in schools, as well as for parents, and it makes ventilation and high-efficiency particulate air—HEPA—filters even more crucial in our schools. We need a credible plan from the Government on those issues.

We are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. At the same time, energy giants are posting record profits. Shell has posted a £14 billion profit and BP has posted a £9.5 billion profit this year. Combined, that is more than £44,000 a minute. At the same time, household energy bills are going up by almost £700. We need a windfall tax on energy companies, with the money going into people’s pockets. It is unbelievable that SNP and Tory MPs are refusing to back that and that the SNP and Tories are also failing to do so in this Parliament. The SNP Government knew that the crisis was coming, so why, despite months of pleading for action, are people still waiting for help?

The First Minister (Nicola Sturgeon

This line of questioning by Anas Sarwar is incredible. It is serious, and I will come to its serious point about the cost-of-living crisis in a second.

He asked me about a windfall levy on oil and gas companies last week, and I have made it clear that I have no objection to that. I said again yesterday that companies that see rising profits should contribute more, but it is for the United Kingdom Government to come forward with proposals on the matter.

Anas Sarwar is asking me about something that, regrettably, I have no power to do. Rather than ask me about things that I lack the power to do, he should join me in seeking those powers for the Parliament, so that we can actually do those things as opposed to just talking about them.

It is not the case that the Government has not taken action. We have taken a range of measures to help people in poverty. We set up the Scottish child payment and recently announced plans to double it, and we have already taken action to help people with the cost of winter and rising fuel costs.

Although the matter is still to be finalised, we believe that last week’s announcements from the Chancellor of the Exchequer will not deliver any net increase to what we already expected to have in the Scottish Government’s budget. Despite that situation, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy will, this afternoon, set out further plans to help those who are struggling with the rising cost of energy, and we will continue to do everything that we can to help.

Looking to the future, would it not be better if more of those powers lay in the hands of the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament instead of their being left to Westminster, in the hands of Conservative Governments?

Anas Sarwar

Forgive me, Presiding Officer, but that is classic SNP—say one thing, do another. The SNP MPs had a chance last week to vote for a windfall tax and failed to do so. I asked the First Minister about what the Government plans to do because, while she is scrambling to put together a last-minute plan, we set out proposals months ago that could have been helping people now.

In response to the deepening crisis, we have published plans to support hard-pressed Scots, which include a UK windfall tax that provides most households with £200, and a further 815,000 households with £600, off their bills. The First Minister says that she will set out plans for Scotland this afternoon. We have already set out detailed plans that would help more than half a million of the hardest-hit Scots by providing £400 to people who receive council tax reduction, pension credit, child winter heating assistance or carers allowance and a top-up to the Scottish welfare fund, which would give councils the ability to award £400 to those whom the scheme does not cover but who struggle to pay their bills. Will the First Minister support those plans?

The First Minister

The finance secretary will set out additional plans this afternoon. We will, of course, consider carefully any proposals that come from Labour or anybody else. Like most Labour proposals, that plan lacks any indication of how it should be paid for—the Scottish Government has to fund the things that we do.

We have already taken significant action. For example, we have provided pandemic support payments to more than half a million households; delivered the Scottish child payment and bridging payments for older children; continued to increase funding for discretionary housing payments—that is, of course, how we mitigate the Tory bedroom tax, which would not even be there if more powers were in the hands of the Parliament; delivered our £41 million winter support fund to help people to heat their homes and meet the rising cost of food; and continued investment in the Scottish welfare fund. We also support debt and welfare advice services.

We are taking a range of actions on the back of the chancellor’s announcement last week. We assumed that additional money would come to the Scottish Government, but it now looks as though a net increase will not take place. Notwithstanding that, we have committed—and stand by the commitment—to deliver an additional £290 million-worth of support, which would be the equivalent of the consequentials had they been passed on to us.

The finance secretary will set out the details of that commitment this afternoon, balancing helping as many people as possible with getting the support to people as quickly as possible. We will continue to do everything that is within our power and our financial resources to help people.

Anas Sarwar

We have published a fully costed plan that goes alongside the £290 million that the First Minister has just quoted, because we knew that the problem was coming. The Government has just set a £44 billion budget—why was the problem not a priority when we knew that we were in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis?

We are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and Scots are being failed by two Governments that just do not get it. The Tories cut universal credit and put up national insurance, yet they have written off billions in fraud. The SNP increases water charges, increases rail fares while taxing people to park at work, and squanders hundreds of millions of pounds of public money due to incompetence and mismanagement. Both Governments fail to back a windfall tax on energy companies that are raking in billions of pounds while bills go up for millions of people. We have known about the crisis for months, yet both Governments have failed to support people across the country who are struggling.

The First Minister’s answers are not good enough. If she really wants to help family budgets, will she reverse her decisions to increase rail fares and water charges, and will she back Labour’s plan?

The First Minister

Both rail fares and water charges are, on average, lower in Scotland than they are elsewhere in the UK.

Let us go back to the point about votes on budgets and the use of our budget. It is only a few weeks since we had the stage 1 vote in this Parliament on next year’s budget. It is a budget that includes plans and the money to double the Scottish child payment, which will be game changing in helping to lift children out of poverty. However, Scottish Labour voted against the budget that will double the Scottish child payment. It will be interesting to see whether Labour members vote for or against the budget at its final stage, this afternoon. If they vote against it or fail to support it, they will be voting against the doubling of the Scottish child payment. [Interruption.] Anas Sarwar is telling me that that is not how it works, but I am afraid that it is. If he wants money for a child payment to lift people out of poverty, he has to vote for it in the budget. That is exactly how it works.

The support in Scotland for people in poverty exceeds the support for people in other parts of the UK, including, in many respects, in Wales, where Labour is in government. We do everything that is within our power and resources to help, and that will continue.

Labour will lack credibility on the issue for as long as it teams up with the Tories to keep vital powers over benefits and energy in the hands of Conservatives at Westminster instead of arguing for the powers to lie here, where we can use them to do more to help the most vulnerable people in our society.