Scottish Parliament budget debate 27-02-24

Edinburgh Evening News

Scottish Parliament budget debate 27-02-24 - Finance Secretary Shona Robison challenged by Lothian Labour MSP Sarah Boyack over Edinburgh's promised new eye hospital

Transcript

00:00 The budget's changes to income tax, including the creation of the new advanced rate, will

00:05 mean that only employees earning in excess of £100,000 will pay more in income-based

00:11 taxes in the coming financial year than they did in this one. The contribution from our

00:16 progressive tax system is supporting us to provide over £0.5 billion extra for the NHS,

00:23 making total funding for front-line health boards to £13.2 billion next year—a real-terms

00:29 increase, despite a real-terms cut to the NHS in England from the Tories.

00:36 Is the Deputy First Minister aware that a quarter of Scotland's sight-loss population

00:46 live in areas that are served by the Princess Alexandra eye hospital and that her budget

00:50 effectively cancels that replacement hospital, condemning them to rely on a facility that

00:54 has been designated not fit for purpose for more than a decade? Surely that is not investing

00:58 in front-line services.

01:02 I will come back to Parliament with a revised infrastructure investment plan, but let me

01:06 be clear that, with a reduction of £1.6 billion from our capital budget, every part of the

01:12 public sector will be impacted by that decision by the UK Government, which I hope is reversed,

01:18 when the Chancellor gets to his feet next week.

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