Jenny Gilruth accused of 'keeping Scots in dark over looming harsh cuts' amid £5bn funding gap pressure
Jenny Gilruth suggested that most of the public sector job losses would be found through “natural attrition”.
SNP Finance Secretary Jenny Gilruth has been accused of keeping Scots “in the dark” over “looming harsh cuts” after insisting frontline jobs will be protected as part of efforts to save around £5bn from public spending.
Ms Gilruth, who took over in her new role as well as becoming deputy first minister in John Swinney’s Cabinet reshuffle last week, has suggested public bodies and quangos could be cut, with a focus on shared services and prevention.
The Scottish government needs to save around £2.6bn on day-to-day revenue spending by the end of the decade, alongside around £2.1bn to meet current spending on capital projects. While efficiencies and cutbacks are expected to help balance revenue budgets, SNP minister have refused to say how money will be generated for capital projects - with cutting projects a possible outcome.
SNP ministers have received criticism from opponents for the projected spend on social security and benefits, which is forecast to reach £9bn by the end of the decade.
But Ms Gilruth gave a staunch defence of the priority, insisting that “I don’t think it’s too high”.
She added: “I think when the public finances are stretched, the last place we should be looking at are the most vulnerable and the poor. Looking in that direction is exactly where parties like Reform would like us to consider.
“We won’t do that as a party and I make no apology for that. We have a welfare approach in Scotland that treats people with dignity and respect. That’s the right thing to do.
“We need to invest in our public services but we also need to create fair work for people to allow them to get back into employment.”
Pressed about the upcoming £5bn financial pressures, Ms Gilruth said that the Scottish government “has been really upfront about the financial challenges that we’ve faced”.
The deputy first minister told the BBC: “The previous finance secretary, Shona Robison, set out to parliament in June of last year the medium-term financial strategy - which set out the financial challenges and the approach that we would take as a government.”
But Ms Gilruth argued that “we also need to look at how we can protect services”.
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She said: “Undoubtedly... we will need to look at efficiencies in the round, for example, in sharing services.
“A really good example of this has been the approach to whole-family wellbeing which the First Minister has championed in relation to how we tackle child poverty and looking at how we share services better across the piste.
“That’s an opportunity for us to save money in that regard.”
The finance secretary said there were “lots of opportunities through digital” to “better share services across the public service and across a number of different bodies”.
She added: “But we also need to look at portfolio savings, and more broadly at prevention.
“We need to consider how prevention can help to support that strategy and really help protect all that is important to the people of Scotland.”
The SNP’s political opponents have also called for the number of so-called quangos, companies that spend public money, to be cut or streamlined to make savings.
“We also see cross-party support for shrinking the number of public sector bodies that we have at the current time”, Ms Gilruth said. “So there are opportunities for us in that regard.”
Ms Gilruth was pressed about the thousands of jobs that will need to ne lost in the public sector in order to meet so-called efficiency targets, with some estimates predicting at least 11,000 to 12,000 positions will have to be axed.
She will work closely with Public Service Reform Secretary, Ivan McKee, to identify savings within government and the public sector.
But the finance secretary argued that it was “not necessarily the case” that thousands of jobs will be cut in the public sector.
“A significant number will come from natural attrition,” she added.
“I think there’s cross-party consensus, though, for looking again at how we can better deliver on those efficiencies and also protect services for people. That’s hugely important.
“We have seen a growing public sector during the pandemic. We know that has brought with it additional costs.”
Ms Gilruth’s predecessor, Shona Robison, failed to rule out compulsory redundancies as part of efforts to make big cuts and efficiencies to the Scottish public sector.
The Scottish government will also need to find extra money for public sector pay deals after using up the majority of a three-year policy in the first two years to avert strike action.
The deputy first minister said: “We delivered record public sector pay deals, but that has come with additional costs to the government. We need to manage our finances prudently. We’ve done that as a government every year that we’ve been in office.
“I’ll be working very closely with Ivan McKee to ensure we protect services and actually protect frontline jobs. A key part of efficiency work that cabinet secretaries led on last year was looking at how we can protect frontline workers, for example, teachers- when we know they are needed most.”
Scottish Labour finance spokesperson, Michael Marra, has accused Ms Gilrurth of failing to be straight with the public about where the axe will fall.
He said: “The SNP has wreaked havoc with Scotland’s public finances and harsh cuts are looming as a result – but Scots still don’t have any answers about what lies ahead.
“There is now a dedicated minister for cuts in this SNP government, but the deputy first minister is still keeping Scots in the dark about where those cuts will fall.”
Mr Marra added: “This new term was a chance for a new approach, but we are hearing the same secrecy, the same spin and the same complacency from the SNP.
“The SNP must come clean about how it is going to fix the mess it has made of Scotland’s budget and give a clear commitment that it will put Scotland’s priorities ahead of its own.”
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