Scottish Growth Scheme - funds allocation: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/01640
Date received: 9 July 2017
Date responded: 4 August 2017

Information requested

The Scottish Growth Scheme was announced in the SNP's Programme for Government last September. The First Minister calling the three-year arrangement "a half-billion-pound vote of confidence in Scottish business, workers and the economy". Where has this sum been allocated to, who will be auditing this sum, and when are it's expected benefits to become apparent?

Response

The £500 million Scottish Growth Scheme will unlock investment through a combination of equity, loans and guarantees over 3 years. The first tranche of investment under the scheme, the Scottish-European Growth Co-Investment Programme announced on 16 June, will provide an estimated £200m in equity investment, over the next 3 years with an anticipated profile of £40m in 2017-18, £80m in 2018-19 and £80m in 2019-20. Further initiatives under the SGS and associated phasing of funding are expected to be announced in the coming months.

The sums involved are not yet reflected in Scottish Government budgets and will be formally allocated as part of our Autumn or Spring Budget revisions. As with all Scottish Government Expenditure this will fall under the scrutiny of Audit Scotland.

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