Gers figures: War of words as Scottish public spending gap grows to £26.5bn

The gap between public spending in Scotland and taxes raised here has grown to £26.5bn amid a fall in North Sea revenue, new Gers figures show.

The latest Government Expenditure & Revenue Scotland (Gers) statistics show the country's net fiscal balance has worsened since last year.

North Sea revenues are down for the second year in the row, while spending on social protection and health is up.

Public sector revenue reached an estimated £91.4bn, but the total layout by the public sector in 2024-45 – including both the Scottish and UK governments – hit £117.6bn.

This includes a £6.1bn jump in spending on measures related to health and welfare.

The publication of each report triggers constitutional commentary, with those on both sides of the independence debate harnessing the figures to advance their arguments.

Scotland's deficit is equivalent to 11.7 per cent of GDP compared with 5.1 per cent for the UK as a whole, according to the figures.

For the UK Government, Scottish secretary Ian Murray said the report shows deviation from the current devolution framework towards full fiscal autonomy would lead to “turbo-charged austerity and economic chaos” for Scotland.

Meanwhile, Scottish Government finance secretary Shona Robison said Brexit had hit Scotland's fortunes by £2.3bn and a share of UK Government debt had added £500m to the deficit.

Scotland’s illustrative geographical share of North Sea revenue was £4.1bn in 2024-25, down from £4.9bn in the previous year after energy prices and production reduced.

Non-North Sea revenue went up by £2.2bn over the period – an increase of 2.5 per cent – and growth in income tax was offset by falling National Insurance contributions.

Robison said revenue raised in Scotland was enough to cover all day-to-day devolved spending and reserved social security, including the £84.9bn needed for the state pension.

Devolved revenue was up by 9.7 per cent over the year, with devolved expenditure rising by 6.8 per cent.

Robison said Scotland's public finances “are better than many other parts of the UK, with the third highest revenue per person in the UK, behind only London and the south east” of England.

And she said the Gers figures “reflect only the current constitutional arrangements”, not the outlook for an independent Scotland, and that the population share allocation of Westminster expenditure on areas like defence obscured the true scale of such spending in Scotland.

However, Murray said £2,669 more per head was spent on people in Scotland compared with the UK average due to UK Government actions, and people in Scotland “rightly expect to see better outcomes” than are currently being achieved in devolved areas such as health.

He said: “These figures underline the collective economic strength of the United Kingdom and how Scotland benefits from the redistribution of wealth inside the UK.”