As part of our ongoing development work on the data sources, methodologies and presentation of GERS, the Scottish Government is planning to make a small number of changes to the treatment of the financial sector interventions and the expenditure associated with the London Olympics.
The changes will not have a material impact on the estimates of public sector expenditure for Scotland, or Scotland's overall fiscal balance. The changes to the treatment of the financial sector interventions match recent developments in the reporting of the UK public sector finances. They will make the presentation of the interventions in GERS more transparent and ensure that the estimates of Scotland's fiscal position are directly comparable with the equivalent UK figures published by the ONS. The changes to the core treatment of expenditure associated with the Olympic Games will address a previously identified asymmetry between the treatment of the Olympics and Commonwealth Games in GERS.
Further details may be found in the following two papers:
Additionally, in response to Requirement 5 from the UK Statistics Authority's Assessment of compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics of GERS , we intend to present the Scottish fiscal balance calculations alongside the UK equivalent calculations. At present, we are planning to present these on a consistent basis with the April 2011 Release of the ONS UK Public Sector Finances Statistical Bulletin which will be published on 24 May 2011. Details of how Revenue and Total Managed Expenditure are aligned to this publication will be provided in the Accounting Adjustments section of the publication.
We would welcome any comments on these proposals. Please reply directly to Sandy Stewart. Any comments received by Tuesday 31 May will be particularly useful given the tight production timetable. The Scottish Government will summarise and publish all comments received on an anonymous basis.