---

Finance Bill

The hon. Gentleman knows that that is simply not the case. In fact, we are increasing the Scottish Executive's budget by more than £2 billion over the next few years. We expect the Scottish Executive to make efficiency savings in 2010-11. Indeed, if the Scottish Executive set the same efficiency targets that Welsh, Northern Ireland and English departments have set—of around 3 per cent., instead of the 2 per cent. set by the Scottish Executive—the additional efficiency savings could be used to support the economy in Scotland as well as across the rest of the country. The Bill provides for a series of measures—many of them temporary, many of them funded by short-term increases in borrowing as part of the fiscal stimulus that the Government have outlined—to help the economy right now. Clause 9 thus legislates for the temporary VAT reduction to 15 per cent. to run until the end of this calendar year.