COVID consequentials spend: FOI release

Information requested

Breakdown of departments allocated significant amounts of money in the wake of the £9 billion received by the Scottish Government in the context of COVID Consequentials with full disclosure of expenditure to date.

Response

COVID-19 Barnett consequentials

The Scottish Government received a total of £14.564 billion in Barnett consequentials from the UK Government in respect of the Covid-19 response; £9.752 billion in 2020‐21 and a further £4.812 billion in 2021‐22.

£1.152 billion of the consequentials received in 2020‐21 were allocated very late in the financial year and were therefore carried forward to 2021‐22.

Details of allocations are included in the table below:

UK Government COVID Allocation to Scottish Government	Resource (£m)	Capital and FTs (£m)	Total (£m)
2020-21 Allocated by UK Government	8,600		8,600
2020-21 Allocated by UK Government at Supplementary Estimates	874	278	1,152
2021-22 Allocated by UK Government - SR20	1,328		1,328
2021-22 Allocated by UK Government - Budget	1,206		1,206
2021-22 Allocated by UK Government - Main Estimates	1,000		1,000
2021-22 Allocated by UK Government - UKSR	516		516
2021-22 Allocated by UK Government - Estimated Supplementary Estimates	707	55	762
Total	14,231	333	14,564

COVID-19 Budget allocations

The Scottish Government has deployed the entire £14.564 billion of consequentials plus funds from its central reserves and other sources of funding to support the COVID response in Scotland. In total this has resulted in almost £14.9 billion being deployed. The following table provides details of when the amounts were deployed.

Deployment of funds to support COVID response by Scottish Government	Resource (£m)	Capital and FTs (£m)	Total (£m)
2020-21 Budget Revisions	8,677	11	8,688
2021-22 Scottish Budget Bill as amended	3,593	278	3,871
2021-22 Autumn Budget Revision	1,050		1,050
2021-22 Spring Budget Revision	1,162	84	1,246
Total	14,482	373	14,855

2020-21 allocations

The Scottish Government set out its response to the pandemic for 2020‐21 at three points during the financial year as details emerged from the UK Government about the COVID‐19 funding being allocated to Scotland.

Firstly, the Summer Budget Revision was exceptionally introduced, on 27 May 2020, to provide the Scottish Parliament with the opportunity to scrutinise the spending decisions made by Scottish Ministers to that point in time. Full details of the allocations are included in the supporting document which can be viewed at 2020‐21 Summer Budget Revision.

It included the allocation of just over £4 billion in funding for the COVID response:

• This total included a comprehensive £2.3 billion package of support for business, a £620 million boost for health services and £350 million funds for communities.
• The spending was largely funded by a rise in the block grant of more than £3.5 billion resulting from extra UK Government COVID‐19 spending, and £112 million of non‐COVID related funding received following the UK Budget of March 2020.
• A further £255 million was reprioritised from within existing departmental budgets, including where COVID‐19 has had an unavoidable impact on planned spending.

The Autumn Budget Revision was published on 24 September 2020 and is available at 2020‐21 Autumn Budget Revision.

This revision allocated a further £2.5 billion to COVID related measures:

• An additional £1.8 billion in funding was allocated to Health and Social Care. This is on top of the £620 million additional Health funding which was allocated at Summer Budget Revision, meaning over £2.4 billion of financial support has been provided to the NHS to support its ongoing COVID‐19 support.
• £222 million of additional resource funding was allocated to support our bus, rail and local transport operators.
• £190 million in additional support was provided for business and the arts.
• £119 million was added to the Education and Skills budget as part of the Education Recovery package and also ensured free school meals were continued over the course of the Summer Holidays.
• The budget revision also allocated capital expenditure for the economic recovery stimulus package announced by the Cabinet Secretary of Finance in June.
• This was funded through a further £2.4 billion of Barnett consequentials from the UK Government, £142 million of reprioritisation of existing expenditure, and £30m of Scotland Reserve drawdowns.

Finally, the remainder of the £8.6 billion received for 2020‐21 was allocated in the Spring Budget Revision (SBR), published on 25 February and available 2020‐21 Spring Budget Revision.

This revision allocated a further £3.2 billion in COVID‐19 and other funding changes:

• £780 million was allocated to business support bringing total business support to over £3 billion in the financial year.
• A further £494m was allocated to Health and Sport.
• £270m of transport support was provided in this budget revision meaning £850m was provided in 2020‐21. to support our rail and bus networks through the pandemic.
• Support for Education and skills reached £450m following the SBR.
• The SBR was funded through £2.6 billion of Barnett consequentials and £745 million of reprioritisation of existing expenditure.

2021-22

A further £1.1 billion of COVID‐19 funding was allocated to the Scottish Government in February 2021, but it was too late to be effectively deployed in the 2020‐21 financial year. This was therefore carried forward to 2021‐22, and was allocated as part of the Stage 2 and 3 amendments to the Budget Act for 2021‐22 alongside further funding for 2021‐ 22 allocated by the UK Government at the Budget in March . This was approved by the Parliament on 9 March and details can be viewed at Scottish budget 2021 to 2022: amendments after introduction of the Budget (Scotland) (No.5) Bill.

Prior to these amendments, the Scottish Government published details of its proposed spending plans, including the allocation of any COVID allocations, for 2021‐22 in the Scottish Budget 2021‐22 published on 29 January and available at Scottish Budget 2021 to 2022.

The Autumn Budget Revision was published on 27 September and is available at 2021‐22 Autumn Budget Revision.

This revision allocated a further £1.1 billion in COVID‐19 funding including:

• an additional £834 million to Health and Social Care;
• £104 million to support our bus, rail and local transport operators; and
• £71 million is provided for business and the arts.

The Spring Budget Revision was published on 3rd February 2022 and is available at 2021‐22 Spring Budget Revision.

This revision allocated a further £1.4 billion in COVID‐19 funding including:

• £782 million is provided to Health and Social Care;
• an additional £329 million to support businesses and tourism.
• £131 million is provided for self‐isolation support.

COVID-19 total spend:

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic up to the end of 31 March 2022 the Scottish Government has spent £14.5 million on COVID-19 measures. Details of this information has been disclosed in the annual consolidated accounts, here and here, as well as the provisional and final outturn exercises for both years. The split of the figures between financial years is:

• 2020-21 - £8.766 billion
• 2021-22 - £5.764 billion

Audit Scotland produced a detailed report on Scotland’s response to COVID-19. Details of this can be found online here.

We have received confirmation from the UK Government that no further COVID-19 funding would be received after the end of the 2021/22 financial year. As no further funding has been received we are no longer directly tracking COVID spend against this funding.

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