The Beveridge Report

Speaking in today's debate at Holyrood on the Independent Budget Review report, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Derek Brownlee MSP said:

"There would have been no Beveridge Report if we had not made it a condition of our support of the Budget earlier this year. The review means that no party on any side of the chamber can expect to face the electorate next May without having seen their plans for the future tested against the benchmarks set out in the report.

"It means that there is at last a public debate about what we can afford, and where we should prioritise. The review document is uncomfortable reading for everyone. But it is better to confront uncomfortable and unpalatable choices sooner rather than leave them to become even more difficult.

"The choice is not whether we spend less. The choice is where we spend less.

"Across Government, the single biggest decisions required are to contain the pay bill. Those who pretend that can be done solely by cutting bonuses for the well paid, or sacking a few Chief Executives here and there either do not understand the public finances, or are trying to mislead the public. As the report makes clear, significant pay restraint and a recruitment freeze for all but essential posts are required to mitigate - not avoid - job losses in the public sector. We believe the UK Government position of a pay freeze for those earning over £21,000 is a useful starting point for the debate on pay restraint.

"The best we can hope for is that retirements and natural turnover, coupled with pay restraint and a recruitment freeze can minimise job losses. A recruitment freeze would save around £150m for every percentage point of staff turnover. It isn't pain free, but it is much less painful than mass redundancies and the public sector should introduce one as a matter of urgency.

"If we could do that, and reduce the level of sickness absence -and it is astonishing that the report highlights that there is no common public sector reporting on this - we could save significant sums of money."

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