Lords to question IFS on economic impact of further devolution
The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee will tomorrow take evidence from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Professor Iain McLean, Professor of Politics at the University of Oxford, as part of its inquiry into the devolution of public finances in the UK.
The session follows the Committee's visit to Edinburgh last week where they took evidence from witnesses including Alistair Darling.
Giving evidence on Tuesday 15 September in Committee Room 1 of the House of Lords will be:
3:35pm David Phillips, Senior Research Economist, Institute for Fiscal Studies Gemma Tetlow, Programme Director, Institute for Fiscal Studies
4:35pm Professor Iain McLean, Professor of Politics, University of Oxford
Areas the Committee will cover with the witnesses include:
- How the block grant to Scotland should be calculated following further devolution and whether the Barnett formula should continue to have a role in allocating funding.
- Whether Scotland should receive further autonomy in its borrowing powers and what form should they take.
- The different tax raising powers proposed for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and what might be the public and business reaction if Scotland had a different rate of income tax to the rest of the UK.
- Whether evidence exists that devolution powers has a positive impact on economic growth.
- Whether full fiscal autonomy is feasible and how Scotland could shrink any fiscal gap it produced in its public finances.
The sessions will be webcast at www.parliamentlive.tv and are also open to the public. Journalists wishing to attend should go to Parliament's Cromwell Green Entrance and should allow time for security screening.
