Social justice spending 'unknown'

Wendy Alexander criticised the lack of clarity

Former cabinet minister Wendy Alexander has hit out at the Scottish Executive's management of its social justice policy.

Ms Alexander quit the post of minister for enterprise, transport and lifelong learning in May 2002 and had also served as communities minister, with responsibility for social policy.

Her criticism of the executive follows a detailed analysis of spending which appeared to show that departments do not know how much efforts to pursue an inclusion agenda are costing.

The Labour MSP has now warned ministers that they would be "negligent" if they allowed this to continue.

If an expert adviser is unable to establish the source of funds after a number of days studying this, what chance a member of the general public? Wendy Alexander MSP

The comments relate to a report from the advisor to the Scottish Parliament's finance committee.

Social justice policy is designed to ensure increased equal access to all public services for people disadvantaged by poverty, disability or background.

Professor Arthur Midwinter examined how the policy of "closing the opportunity gap", which cuts across budgets and departments, works in practice.

Every minister is expected to ensure their policies help meet this goal.

However, it is claimed that departments do not know how much is being spent or whether it is being spent wisely.

Budget questions

The matter is confused further by the fact that accounting changes have rendered year-on-year analysis almost meaningless.

In the committee, which met on Tuesday, Ms Alexander criticised the lack of clarity.

"If an expert advisor is unable to establish the source of funds after a number of days studying this, what chance a member of the general public?" she said.

"How is how we spend the taxpayers' pound in Scotland changing over time? That is at the highest level what we should be accountable for and we just don't know at the moment.

Unless you can link the two together, then the whole thing is more of a lottery than actually the systematic application of resources Professor Midwinter Finance committee adviser

"I think it is a neglect by the executive and a neglect for the committee if we let that situation continue."

The report found shortcomings in each of the spending departments studied by Professor Midwinter.

It found the justice department's pledge to close the opportunity gap by working to reduce crime "does not say how resources will be targeted to achieve this objective".

In tourism, culture and sport it found that "there is no indication of the scale of resources committed to tackling disadvantage".

The enterprise and lifelong learning department states its aim to close the opportunity gap in employment and training, yet "the figure is not quantified".

And the finance department is also vague about costings - the report "cannot tell if these priorities are reflected in the budget on the basis of the information presented here".

"This is disappointing given past exchanges with the minister about the need for costed options," it adds.

Policy commitment

Professor Midwinter told the BBC's Newsnight Scotland programme he found it was difficult to link spending with outcomes without an accurate picture of the spending in the first place.

He said: "It matters because it's the only way in which you can see that you are achieving value for money.

"It is the only way that you can monitor the increase in spending, which has been quite significant over recent years, is actually having the desired result.

"Unless you can link the two together, then the whole thing is more of a lottery than actually the systematic application of resources to deal with big policy problems."

The committee said it would pursue the issues with the Finance Minister Andy Kerr next month.

In a statement the executive reaffirmed its commitment to social justice and said that if the finance committee has any suggestions about how to improve transparency it would be happy to discuss them.