A TORY MSP’s complaint about a “misleading” tweet from the Scottish Government has been dismissed by the head of the civil service.
Murdo Fraser raised a complaint with the Scottish Government about a post on Twitter/X ahead of the Budget, which he said gave the impression Scotland’s spending decisions were dictated by Westminster.
The tweet read: “Below-inflation funding uplifts in England impact Scotland's budget.
"In the UK Government's Autumn Statement, only £10.8 million of extra funding was provided for NHS Scotland for the next year, a real-terms cut.
"This would fund just five hours of NHS Scotland activity in a year."
Devolution allows for the Scottish Government to decide how it spends the money that it receives from Westminster on things like education and health.
Analysis from independent forecasters at the Scottish Fiscal Commission published earlier this week showed a slight increase of 0.9% to Scotland’s budget from Westminster in real terms.
In his Autumn Statement last month, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt reduced planned funding for NHS England by 2%.
Permanent Secretary John Paul Marks (above), who is the head of the Scottish civil service, said he had “carefully considered” the points raised by the Tory MSP – but said he was satisfied the tweet was within the rules.
He wrote: “I welcome your feedback and have given careful consideration to the points you have raised.
“I appreciate that social media messaging has limitations when communicating complex material, which is why we also published the associated analysis at the same time; and have since published much more material too in the Budget 2024-25 documents.
“Following review and assurance from my chief economist and senior colleagues, I am content that the messaging within the communications products is consistent with the accompanying and assured Scottish Government paper.”
Fraser told The National he believed the tweet was “blatantly party-political” and “misleading”.
He said: “I understand the Permanent Secretary’s first instinct is to defend his civil service colleagues but, even then, I find his response disappointing.
“The tweet in question was blatantly party-political and, more importantly, highly misleading. Indeed, such was the outcry against it that [Twitter] X issued a ‘community note’, highlighting concerns over its accuracy.
“That was both humiliating and damning for a post from a supposedly impartial Scottish Government channel.”
