Budget 2021/22: Supporting the COVID-19 Recovery - Analysis of Consultation Responses

2. Introduction

2.1 Background

The ‘Budget 2021-2022: supporting the COVID-19 recovery’ consultation^[4] ran from Thursday 3 September 2020 to Thursday 8 October 2020, and received 64 responses. Of those, 36 were from individuals and 28 were from organisations. A list of respondents and links to their responses is available in Annex A.

The Scottish Government believes this to be a crucial time to seek wide-ranging views on how we can best deploy our fiscal powers to support the COVID-19 recovery. We also sought views on how our current devolved fiscal arrangements could evolve, in order to build stronger fiscal foundations for Scotland’s future.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered twin health and economic crises on a global scale. The Scottish Government has taken unprecedented steps since the beginning of the crisis to support the people and businesses of Scotland and we are continuing to do so.

The pandemic has underlined the importance of providing timely information about the decisions we are taking to support public understanding and provide opportunities for the public and stakeholders to participate in those decisions. This consultation exercise was an important part of our tax policy engagement activity ahead of the 2021-22 Scottish Budget.

Through this consultation exercise, which builds on our strong track record of taking an open and consultative approach to tax policy, the Scottish Government sought views on the role of our devolved taxes and the Fiscal Framework in the COVID-19 economic recovery. All responses to the consultation have helped to inform policy development in relation to the Scottish Budget 2021-22, and will continue to inform our longer term thinking.

About the analysis

As with all consultations it is important to bear in mind that the views of those who have responded are not representative of the views of the wider population. Individuals (and organisations) who have a keen interest in a topic – and the capacity to respond – are more likely to participate in a consultation than those who do not. This self-selection means that the views of consultation participants cannot be generalised to the wider population.

For this reason, the approach to consultation analysis is primarily qualitative in nature. Its main purpose is not to identify how many people held particular views, but rather to understand and consider the full range of views expressed.