Latest news with #GraemeRoy
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Scotland's public sector cuts and a stinking metaphor
They had to pee in the showers, which was fine until the drifting ship hit choppy waters and the overflowing shower trays spilled into the cabins and hallways. The trickiest choice for passengers was over what to do with number twos. The hen party interviewed in the documentary mainlined Imodium, while the young man trying to impress his father-in-law-to-be spent an age searching the boat's 13 decks for the last working bog. Others tried to hold it in, but most opted for the small red carrier bags doled out by the ship's crew. They left them filled and tied up outside their doors, leaving the ship's corridors like a Glasgow city centre street ahead of a major event. Sometimes circumstances leave you with nothing but poor choices. Take, for instance, the near £5 billion black hole in the Scottish Government's finances. Shona Robison is opting for Imodium, hunting for the one working loo and using the red bag all at the same time. To plug the gap, the Finance Secretary is hoping for growth, searching for efficiencies and cutting the number of public sector jobs. The red bag option here is the threat of compulsory redundancies. The minister believes she should be able to reduce staffing numbers by 0.5% annually for five years, through retirements and general churn, eventually saving £700m per year. Read more from Unspun: But when asked if she could rule out compulsory redundancies, she could not. You'd be right to think that 0.5% of roughly 460,000 devolved public sector workers isn't actually a huge amount, particularly when the workforce is now up 39,000 on pre-Covid levels. But what makes this choice tougher is that the government probably isn't going to be looking at the frontline. NHS staff, for example, will likely be protected. It'll be back office staff who are targeted Suddenly, that makes the pool much smaller. Will retirements, voluntary severance and a recruitment freeze be enough to get the Scottish Government to their target? As Professor Graeme Roy, the Chair of the Scottish Fiscal Commission told journalists on Thursday morning, if this "doesn't get you the number that you need, then you're going to have to find it either through direct redundancy policies or by trying to find and free up resources elsewhere from the non pay budget." Basically, if ministers don't want to fire public sector workers then they will need to find the money from somewhere else. Where this properly awful metaphor that I've hammered to death over 500 words falls down is that the Carnival Triumph was eventually towed to safety. There's no tugboat on the horizon for the Scottish Government. The messiest situations demand the toughest choices — and sometimes, even the best options still stink.
Scotsman
2 days ago
- Business
- Scotsman
SNP plans to axe more than 12,000 jobs to plug near £5bn gap 'easier said than done'
Sign up to our Politics newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The Scottish Government's independent financial forecaster has warned plans to axe thousands of jobs from the public sector without harming frontline services is 'easier said than done' amid warnings a forecast £5 billion funding gap could rise to almost £6bn. Finance Secretary Shona Robison has published her Government's long-delayed medium-term financial strategy, which starkly warns ministers are braced for a funding gap of £2.6bn for day-to-day revenue spending and £2.1bn for capital investment plans by 2030 to cover proposed spending commitments. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad St Andrew's House is the Scottish Government's headquarters, based in Edinburgh. | TSPL More than 12,000 jobs in the devolved public sector workforce are set to be cut in the coming years to make the target. Ms Robison was unable to rule out compulsory redundancies if all other methods did not produce results at the scale required. She confirmed the Scottish Government would cut the devolved public sector workforce by 0.5 per cent on average per annum over the next five years. Statistics published by the Scottish Government on June 10 state that employment in the devolved public sector in Scotland was 550,000 as of March. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Scottish Government has claimed that frontline services will not be impacted, with the savings and job cuts hoped to be made in back offices. But Professor Graeme Roy, chairman of the Scottish Fiscal Commission, has warned the ambition to reverse a trend of employment growth in the public sector workforce would be no easy task. Professor Graeme Roy | Contributed Prof Roy stressed public sector employment made up 'over half of the Scottish Government budget', adding 'it's such an important part of how we deliver public' services. He said: 'They will be hoping for when they do start to pull out public sector workers, that does not have an effect on public services. That requires really careful planning and it's where the Government has not been for 15 years.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Prof Roy insisted that being able to 'protect job numbers in key areas like the NHS' would be 'easier said than done'. He said: 'To take 12,000 people out of the public sector in four years might seem relatively small in the overall scale of the public sector. But that goes against everything we have seen in recent years, which has seen quite substantial growth in public sector employment. 'It's easy to say this is the plan. Actually, how you do it and ensure it does not have an impact on public services, essentially, is going to be the key challenge the Government faces over the next few years.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Prof Roy warned it was not as straightforward for the Scottish Government to 'be taking numbers back to where they were just after Covid', warning 'this is quite a different policy agenda by the Government to scale back'. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned the £2.6bn gap that will need to be filled for day-to-day spending could actually become £3.5bn due to "optimistic" assumptions made that earrings will grow in Scotland faster than the rest of the UK.
CTV News
19-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
TTC streetcar derails in downtown Toronto
A Toronto Transit Commission sign is shown at a downtown Toronto subway stop Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy A TTC streetcar derailed in downtown Toronto Thursday, causing road closures during the morning commute. Toronto police said the train went off the tracks just after 7:20 a.m. at Bathurst and Dundas streets. No injuries were reported. Road closures are in effect and police are asking motorists to consider alternate routes. At the same time, the TTC says service on the 505 Dundas, 511 Bathurst and 506 Carlton routes have all been impacted due to an overhead power line issue, though it's unclear if that's a direct result of the derailment. Shuttle buses are running. More details to come.
CTV News
18-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
Subway service resumes on Line 2 after emergency repairs
A Toronto Transit Commission sign is shown at a downtown Toronto subway stop Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy Subway service has resumed on a section of Line 2 (Bloor-Danforth) following emergency repairs. Subway service was suspended both ways between St. George and Broadview stations for around an hour Wednesday. According to the TTC, the closure was to facilitate emergency radio repairs. Service resumed around 10 a.m., the TTC said in a tweet.
The Herald Scotland
15-06-2025
- Health
- The Herald Scotland
John Swinney: Public sector status quo ‘not sufficient'
It is the first of two speeches to be delivered by Mr Swinney, with the SNP leader also due to address the Scotland 2050 Conference in Edinburgh on Tuesday, where he will argue that Scottish independence is key to achieving Scotland's long-term ambitions. Last week, The Herald revealed that senior SNP activists had warned the First Minister he had two weeks to devise a new independence strategy, or face a potential leadership challenge at the party's conference in October. Discontent has also been simmering among MSPs, with reports of a 'fractious' group meeting at Holyrood last Tuesday. READ MORE In his speech at the Imaging Centre of Excellence at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, the First Minister is expected to say: 'This changing world requires a fundamental change in how we operate. "The status quo — across almost every field of endeavour — is no longer sufficient, it no longer serves us well enough. 'Public services first built in and for the 20th century must become rooted instead in the realities of the 21st. Our public realm reshaped; our nation renewed and reborn for this new age. 'The Scotland I seek is modern and dynamic; it is an enterprising, compassionate, forward-looking nation that is well placed to ride the waves of change rather than being buffeted by them, rather than being overwhelmed by them. 'A Scotland where tomorrow is better than today because, together, we have made it so. 'It means public services too that are modern, accessible, flexible, responsive and seamless. Services capable of responding to life's crises as well as to life's everyday. Services that are robust and creative in response to all the challenges — fiscal, climate, demographic — that are coming our way.' The scale of Scotland's demographic challenge was underlined last week when new figures from the National Records of Scotland showed the number of babies born between January and March was 3.9% below the seasonal average. Just 11,431 births were registered in the first quarter of 2025, compared to a five-year average of 11,891 for the same period. The birth rate now stands at 8.4 per 1,000 people, continuing a long-term decline. The latest figures also show a notable fall in mortality. A total of 16,721 deaths were registered in the first quarter of the year — 7.7% below the expected number of 18,123. In a recent report, the Scottish Fiscal Commission warned that these demographic pressures would place 'significant pressures' on Scotland's public finances. The watchdog said health — the largest area of Scottish Government spending — is expected to grow faster than any other part of the budget due to these shifts and rising demand. According to the latest ONS projections, the number of Scots aged 85 and over is set to nearly double by 2050. The Commission's chair, Professor Graeme Roy, said improving the underlying health of the population 'would lead to benefits to the public finances through lower spending and higher tax revenues and help to address the long‑term fiscal sustainability challenges.'
