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Scotland’s Future in the United Kingdom

Busy week. In the House of Commons for Scottish Questions and then made a statement about the UK Government’s response to the Calman Commission.

Devolution has been a great success. No one can argue with that. It has been one of the great achievements of this Government. Now was the right time to build on the success of the first ten years. I am really grateful for all the hard work put in by Ken Calman and his Commission and from the other political parties who helped to get us to this point.

Since the first day of devolution, the Scottish Government has been accountable for how it spends taxpayers’ money. Under today’s proposals, they will also be held to account for how they raise it. We will give the Scottish Parliament greater freedom – but also the responsibility – to set the level of income tax in Scotland.

In future, the size of Scotland’s budget will be down to decisions made in Scotland. In addition to new tax powers, we will also give the Scottish Parliament new powers and responsibilities on capital borrowing.

We will also devolve stamp duty land tax, aggregates levy, and landfill tax, and will keep the Commission’s recommendation about Air Passenger Duty under review.

We will introduce a Scotland Bill to do this as soon as possible in the next Parliament. We plan to have the changes in place for the next term of the Scottish Parliament.

Let me know what you think.