Deputy First Minister John Swinney has leapt to the defence of the SNP’s plan for full fiscal autonomy despite Scottish Parliament analysis which found that plummeting oil prices could lead to a £9.7 million cut in public spending.
Labour has produced its own “oil and gas bulletin” while Holyrood awaits an official bulletin by the Scottish Government.
SNP members cried that it was a “Mickey Mouse” report at First Minister’s Questions, but Labour’s deputy leader Kezia Dugdale said its findings have been confirmed by independent researchers at the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Spice).
Ms Dugdale complained that Holyrood has not seen an economic analysis from the SNP government for more than a year.
“We have got tired of waiting for this government to do a fiscal analysis, so we have published our own,” she said, to laughs and jeers from the SNP benches.
Ms Dugdale continued: “I hear cries of ‘Mickey Mouse’ and ‘it’s not credible’, but they should listen because this has been verified by Spice and independent experts.
“This is the oil paper that the SNP government won’t print.
“We would need a global oil price of 200 US dollars (£129) to balance Scotland’s books under the SNP’s plans for full fiscal autonomy.
“So disastrous is the SNP’s policy, that it is predicated on an oil price that has never been reached before.
“This is a number that has been approved by Spice, so they can laugh all they like but this is the reality of the situation.”
Mr Swinney said: “What full fiscal autonomy is about is about building on the powers of this parliament – powers that over the last 16 years have seen an improvement in the economic performance of Scotland.
“Our GDP per head used to be sixth in the UK, now it is now third only behind London and the South East.
“Our productivity has increased from 96% of UK levels in 1999 to being in line with UK levels in 2012.
“The moral of the story is where we can exercise distinctive economic policies in Scotland, we can transform the economic performance of this country, and for me that is what fiscal autonomy is all about.
“It’s about enabling this parliament to take the decisions that are right for Scotland, not to be at the mercy of a Tory Chancellor that comes along one Thursday and takes £100 million out of our budget without a by your leave.”
Ms Dugdale cited the “worrying” Oil and Gas Survey released by Aberdeen andGrampian Chamber of Commerce today which found that two-thirds of North Sea oiland gas industry operators have been forced to cancel projects because of therecent fall in oil prices.
“The industry, the economy of the north east, thousands of oil workers and their families need to know what the future holds for Scotland’s oil and gas industry,” she said.
“Can the Deputy First Minister confirm when an updated oil and gas bulletin will be published?”
Mr Swinney said: “I can confirm that.
“The government is considering the implications of the UK Budget back in March, which contained substantial changes to the taxation arrangements of the UK oil and gas sector.
“Once we have confirmed the extent of those changes and the implications of those changes, which obviously will follow through into what we hope will be investment decisions made by companies given the fact that there has been such radical change in the taxation regime of the North Sea, the government will publish the next version of the Oil & Gas Analytical Bulletin.”
Ms Dugdale said: “I didn’t hear a date there.
“The SNP government has had time to do the work and it has been one excuse after another.
“That is the fourth time someone in his seat has refused to do that.
“Once upon a time you couldn’t move for SNP oil bulletins, but since the collapse in the oil price we have had nothing but radio silence.
“That may be because the collapsing oil price has demolished the SNP’s economic credibility.
“We now know that the SNP will amend the Scotland Bill to push for full fiscal autonomy within the UK.”