Following the Scottish Affairs Committee’s recent report on the UK Share Prosperity Fund, in which it expressed concerns about the involvement of Scotland in its design, the UK has confirmed that devolved nations (including Scotland) will be part of the fund’s governance structure.
This should put Scottish Office ministers at ease, who were worried that the UK government hadn’t consulted enough with governments from devolved countries — namely Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland — despite allocating them funding.
Further details about how exactly the fund will function and be allocated remain still to be revealed.
What is the UK Shared Prosperity Fund?
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) is a pot of money set for launch in April 2022 that’s intended to replace the previous structural funds the European Union shared between its member states.
Following the UK’s departure from the EU, there were concerns that devolved nations (which benefited disproportionately from the funding) would no longer get the money they previously received, which led to the introduction of the UPSPF
Concerns
A feature of the EU funding was that administrations of the devolved nations could decide how they wanted to spend the allocation they received. However, the initial outline of the UKSPF seemed to suggest that these administrations would have a more limited role in how the money would be spent.
Pete Wishart MP — the Scottish Affairs Committee Chair — expressed that the UK government should release more details about how exactly the Scottish Government (and other administrations) will be involved. Although it has promised some level of cooperation, it’s still unclear exactly what the relationship will look like.
The Committee has also asked the government to reveal how much money it plans on giving each devolved nation in the next five years.
Strained relations?
The future of relations between Scotland and the rest of the UK have been hanging in the balance since the departure from the EU, which Scotland overwhelmingly voted against. This has led to some concerns about Scotland’s exit from the UK, so Westminster needs to carefully consider how it treats the devolved nations in initiatives like the UKSPF.