THE Scottish Government spent more than £9 billion on coronavirus support in the last financial year, a minister has said.
Finance Minister Tom Arthur said the support went further than the money passed on from the UK Government for Covid assistance.
Arthur gave a financial update to MSPs yesterday as part of the provisional budget outturn for 2020-21.
He said the Scottish Government had fulfilled its obligation to deliver a balanced budget in the financial year, with 99% of the £48.5bn budget spent. The remainder will be carried over into reserve funds to support pandemic recovery, he said.
Arthur told MSPs: “Every penny received by the Scottish Government to tackle Covid-19 has been channelled to where it was needed the most.
“To date, we have announced over 170 Covid initiatives, providing bespoke financial support to businesses, individuals and organisations to support them through the pandemic.
“In 2020/21 we allocated more than £9 billion to support the health, economic and social challenges created by this pandemic.
“This is more than the Covid funding passed to us by the UK Government.”
He said this included £3bn for health and public health, a further £3bn for Scottish businesses and £1 billion for local government.
The minister repeated the Scottish Government’s call for further financial flexibility in its funding arrangement with the UK Government.
He continued: “What is not in doubt is that significant budget challenges lie ahead.
“And these funding challenges will continue as we target our resources at stimulating a safe, swift and sustainable recovery for our communities, our public services and our economy.”
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