Cladding Remediation Programme funding: EIR release

Information requested

Was the £97.1m consequentials received from UKG allocated to the Single Building Assessment Delivery team; and the why the Scottish Government does not receive 8% of the planned £5.1 billion spend by the UK Government on the cladding redemption programme.

Response

In response to your first question, the Scottish Government received £97.1m in Barnett consequentials in 2021-22. It is for Scottish Ministers to decide on the allocation of consequentials. All decisions on capital allocations are taken as part of the budget process. These decisions are finalised in the release of the Scottish Budget, which sets out the Scottish Government’s proposed spending and tax plans for 2021 to 2022. This information is publicly available through this link: Scottish Budget 2021 to 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

In response to your second question, in the Spending Review 2021, the UK Government confirmed £5 billion funding (£3 billion over the Spending Review period to 2024-25, so across 2022-23,2023-24 and 2024-25, with the balance to follow after that period) for remediation of the highest risk buildings with unsafe cladding. Cladding funding is factored into the Barnett Settlement for the Spending Review, so contributes to the overall funding for the Scottish Government. However, as the Scottish Government does not, except in certain circumstances, receive a full breakdown of consequentials at programme level from the UK Government, it is not possible in this case to determine how much was received from individual programmes such as cladding in each of the years of the Spending Review. Under devolution, consequentials of this nature become part of the Scottish Government overall budget and are not ring fenced for a particular purpose, it is for Scottish Ministers to decide how funding is allocated.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.