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Severin Carrell
The gap between public spending and taxes in Scotland has grown sharply to more than £26bn, leaving it with a deficit twice as large as the UK’s, official data shows.
The latest annual report on Scottish expenditure and tax revenues shows the notional fiscal deficit – the gap between overall spending and overall tax receipts – stood at 11.7% of Scottish GDP in the last financial year.
The UK’s deficit was 5.1% for 2024/25, and the revenue gap has grown in Scotland. In the previous year, it stood at 9.7% of GDP.
Those figures, which include all types of spending and tax raising by both the Scottish and UK governments, include Scotland’s notional share of revenues from North Sea oil and gas. Those fell last year, contributing to the increasing fiscal gap.
Overall, the two governments raised £91.4bn in taxes but spent £117.6bn – a figure which includes Scotland’s notional share of spending in other parts of the UK or overseas in areas such as defence, trade and foreign affairs.
The Scottish government said these annual accounts, part of the Government expenditure and revenue Scotland (GERS) series, showed that domestic tax receipts grew faster than all devolved government spending and social security spending for the fourth year running.
The data has continuing significance because the Scottish National party government in Edinburgh plans to make independence part of next year’s devolved elections again. Scotland’s ability to finance its spending independently is a crucial issue in that debate.
Shona Robison, the Scottish finance secretary, said:
The decisions we have taken here in Scotland are helping support sustainable public finances.
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.
Ian Murray, the secretary of state for Scotland, who represents the UK government, said:
These figures underline the collective economic strength of the United Kingdom and how Scotland benefits from the redistribution of wealth inside the UK.
By sharing resources with each other across the UK, Scots benefit by £2,669 more per head in public spending than the UK average. It also means that devolved governments have the financial heft of the wider UK behind them when taking decisions.
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Trump administration accuses UK of failing to uphold human rights
Rachel Hall
The Trump administration has accused the UK of backsliding on human rights over the past year, citing antisemitic violence and “serious restrictions” on free speech.
The annual US state department assessment, which analyses human rights conditions worldwide, highlighted laws limiting speech around abortion clinics, as well as the way government officials “repeatedly intervened to chill speech” online after the 2024 Southport attack.
The report stated:
The government sometimes took credible steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses, but prosecution and punishment for such abuses was inconsistent.
The report cited the “safe access zones” around abortion clinics, which it said “could include prohibitions on efforts to influence … even through prayer or silent protests”.
JD Vance, right, seen here with David Lammy at Chevening, previously said the UK had conducted a ‘backslide in conscience rights’. Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP
Criticism over the handling of free speech – in particular relating to regulations on online hate speech – was also directed at the governments of Germany and France.
A UK government spokesperson said:
Free speech is vital for democracy around the world, including here in the UK, and we are proud to uphold freedoms whilst keeping our citizens safe.
The document, previously seen as the most comprehensive study of its kind, has been significantly rewritten and downscaled by the Trump administration, including in areas such as government corruption and LGBTQ+ rights.
It spares criticism for US allies such as Israel and El Salvador while escalating disapproval of perceived foes such as Brazil and South Africa. The document was published after months of delay amid reports of internal dissent at the state department over its contents.
ShareRajeev Syal
In case you missed our news story on the topic:
Police forces should consider disclosing the ethnicity and migration status of suspects when they are charged in high-profile and sensitive investigations, according to new official guidance.
After a row over claims that police “covered up” the backgrounds of two men charged in connection with the alleged rape of a child, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing have backed plans to release details of nationality when there is a “policing purpose” for doing so.
This could be to reduce the risk to public safety, “where there are high levels of mis- or disinformation about a particular incident”, or in cases of significant public interest, senior police said.
The decision to release new guidance has been praised by a former senior prosecutor, who said it could help counter rumours and disinformation which spread on social media.
But it will also anger some anti-racist campaigners, who have expressed concern that such proposals could risk framing violence against women and girls as an issue of ethnicity instead of misogyny.
The decision comes after Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, urged police to release the details of ethnicity last week.
Forces are already encouraged to publicise charging decisions in serious cases, the NPCC said.
Decisions on whether to release this information will remain with forces, an NPCC statement said, with wider legal and ethical considerations.
The Home Office will decide if it is “appropriate in all the circumstances” to confirm immigration status of a suspect, the guidance said.
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Facial recognition will be used “in a very measured, proportionate way”, the policing minister has vowed.
Policing minister Diana Johnson vowed on a breakfast interview on Wednesday that facial recognition would be used ‘in a very measured, proportionate way’. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA
Asked about allegations a wider rollout of facial recognition was the “thin end of the wedge”, leading to a “total surveillance society”, Diana Johnson told BBC Breakfast:
With the greatest of respect, that’s not what this is about. This is about giving the tools to our police officers to enable them to keep us safe. And the live facial recognition results in London, where it’s been used, in the past 12 months, over 580 arrests were made, and these included people who were wanted for rape, for GBH (grievous bodily harm), for robbery, for domestic abuse, and also for sex offenders who were breaching their conditions of being out in the community.
So I think this is a really powerful tool for policing.
And it’s actually a tool, it’s not an automated decision maker. So, the police officer has to look at what’s being put up on the screen and decide what to do next, so there’s that human involvement, but it is a really powerful tool, which I think the public would actually be supportive of being used in a very measured, proportionate way to go after those individuals that the police are looking for for these serious offences.
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Updated at 05.06 EDT
Releasing suspects’ ethnicity and nationality won’t stop all instances of disinformation, says policing minister
Disinformation could still spread around suspects arrested under new guidance for police, a minister has said, reports the PA news agency.
Police forces have been told to share suspects’ ethnicity and nationality with the public after authorities were accused of covering up offences carried out by asylum seekers, and after riots following the Southport murders which were partly fuelled by social media disinformation.
The interim guidance by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing comes after mounting pressure on police over the details they make public.
Asked on BBC Breakfast whether not revealing nationality and ethnicity until a suspect is charged, rather than when they are arrested, means disinformation could still spread in the community as it did after Axel Rudakubana’s murders in Southport, policing minister Diana Johnson agreed. Johnson said:
(Disinformation) is a bigger problem for society, I think, but in terms of particular individuals, what normally happens is at charge, information is released. That’s what’s happened before.
Johnson said:
We were very supportive of being as open and as transparent as possible and this interim guidance will set out that on charge, usually name and addresses are given.
We also, in most cases, will want to see nationality or ethnicity given as well. This goes back to last year and what happened, that appalling atrocity in Southport.
She said the government has asked the Law Commission to look into the guidance to make sure any future trial is not prejudiced by information released.
Asked if information about a suspect’s asylum status will be shared in new guidance, Johnson replied:
To date, it’s not something that the Home Office comment on in terms of asylum applications that are made by individuals.
More on this story in a moment. Also today, Keir Starmer will co-chair a meeting with pro-Ukraine allies after a call with US president Donald Trump and European leaders about ending the war scheduled to take place at about midday.
According to The Times, US vice-president JD Vance will meet Reform UK leader Nigel Farage for breakfast in the Cotswolds. In the afternoon, JD Vance is scheduled to visit US troops at Royal Air Force Fairford in Gloucestershire.
In other developments:
A Trump administration report has accused the UK of backsliding on human rights over the past year, citing increased antisemitic violence and growing restrictions on free speech. The annual US state department assessment, which analyses human rights conditions worldwide, flagged what it described as “serious restrictions” on freedom of expression in the UK.
A former cabinet minister has said the UK government is “digging itself into a hole” over Palestine Action and fellow Labour peers and MPs were regretting voting to ban the group. The warning by Peter Hain, who opposed proscription, came as a Labour backbencher who supported it said the issue would arise again when parliament returned in September.
Scottish Green Party members will begin voting for the party’s new leadership from Wednesday. The ballot to replace the current team of co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater will be open until 22 August, with the results to be published a week later.
More than 46,000 public bodies spurned the offer of a free King Charles portrait. According to a Guardian exclusive, the Cabinet Office has refused a freedom of information (FoI) request to disclose exactly where the pictures did end up amid falling public support for monarchy.
A group of nine human rights and freedom of expression organisations have called on the culture secretary to halt RedBird Capital’s proposed £500m takeover of the Telegraph and investigate the US private equity company’s ties to China. The international non-governmental organisations, which include Index on Censorship, Reporters Without Borders and Article 19, have written to Lisa Nandy arguing that RedBird Capital’s links with China “threaten media pluralism, transparency and information integrity in the UK”.
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