The Herald today reports:

UK public sector borrowing came in higher than expected in June, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Borrowing was £14.5 billion in June, £3.2 billion less than June last year, but well above the £11.6 billion forecast by the Government’s spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Scotland can borrow a bit, contrary to some claims. From the Ferret:

Under the fiscal framework, Scotland’s borrowing powers are limited. However, they do have some ability to borrow within the fiscal rules. 

The Scottish Government is able to borrow for both resource and capital spending, but does not have the same powers as the UK Government in these areas. 

Resource spending is day-to-day spending on delivering public services like the NHS or education. Scotland is only able to borrow money to account for errors in forecasting or cash management. This can be up to £600m if there is a specific Scotland-based economic shock. 

This means the Scottish Government cannot borrow money to spend on services on a discretionary basis.

Scotland has more flexibility to borrow money for capital spending, which covers tangible assets such as construction of roads, hospitals and infrastructure. 

The limit for borrowing is £450m per year, with a cap of £3bn in total capital debt. 

This is a small amount compared to the overall annual budget of the Scottish Government, which in 2023-24 will run to nearly £59.7bn, and to the borrowing of the UK Government, which in 2022-23 was £139.2bn.

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The total UK debt, derived from centuries of England’s trade deficit, from military hardware and vanity spending and from imperial wars, is £2 654 billion, 885 times Scotland’s permitted maximum of $3 billion, despite our historic trade surplus.