SNP Government to announce up to £600m in spending cuts at Holyrood today

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The Scottish Government will announce spending cuts in Holyrood today.Finance Secretary Shona Robison will update MSPs on what will be axed as the Scottish Parliament returns from summer recess.Robison has sought to blame Westminster for a “whole new era of austerity” as spending worth up to £600m expected to be cut.

But opposition parties have said it is the SNP’s own decisions which have led to the public finances being strained.A number of measures have already been announced, with the Government redirecting money from a nature fund and a free iPad scheme to go towards local authority pay awards.The independent Scottish Fiscal Commission has noted that more than half of the Government’s resource spending is allocated to public sector pay and above-expectation increases in this area will lead to cuts elsewhere.Ahead of her statement, Robison said: “The SNP Government has delivered a balanced budget in every year that we have been in office – and we will continue to do so.“I am proud to serve in a government which is investing hundreds of millions of pounds to lift children in Scotland out of poverty, and is ensuring our police, our nurses and our teachers are the best-paid in the UK.“We have taken many tough choices – including asking those on higher incomes to pay a bit more income tax – in order that we can invest more in public services like our NHS.“But the fact is, the Scottish Government operates with a largely fixed budget determined by Westminster and, under the Labour Government, it is clear that we are entering a whole new era of austerity.“The cuts that they are proposing to make will have a profound effect on our ability to deliver for the people of Scotland – but (the) SNP Government will do everything we