Campaign for an English Parliament

Inquiry to begin into Barnett Formula with debate on remit

Westminster’s new inquiry into the Barnett Formula gets under way tomorrow with the first meeting of the Lords committee on the subject.

The meeting will be in private and is expected to discuss the general remit of the peers’ inquiry. The formula, which determines the level of additional public expenditure in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, has over the years become a major bone of contention, fuelling claims that England subsidises the rest of the UK.

The committee will be chaired by Labour’s Lord Richard, the party’s former Leader in the Lords, and will include Lords Forsyth of Drumlean and Lang of Monkton, the former Conservative Scottish Secretaries; Lord Lawson of Blaby, the former Tory Chancellor; Lord Sewel, Labour’s ex-Scottish Office Minister; the Liberal Democrats’ Earl of Mar and Kellie; and Lord Trimble, the former leader of the Ulster Unionists.

The committee’s remit is to consider the “purpose, methodology, and application of the Barnett Formula as a means of determining funding for the devolved administrations of the UK, to assess the effectiveness of the calculation mechanism to meet its purpose, and to consider alternative mechanisms”.

Its remit excludes consideration of the overall system of funding the devolved administrations, in particular the question of whether greater tax-raising powers should be accorded to the devolved administrations, other political aspects of the devolution settlements, and the distribution of funds within the different UK regions. Its report is due next summer.

There are 12 members of this committee. Two have credentials to represent Welsh interests; one being knighted for services to Wales and the other ex Chairman of the Commission on the Welsh Assembly. Three have credentials to represent Northern Irish interests being an ex NI Minister, a current NI spokesman and the ex First Minister of the NI Assembly. Four have credentials to represent Scottish interests; two being ex MPs for Scottish constituencies & former Secretaries of State for Scotland, one is a Scottish Peer and the fourth signed the Claim of Right for Scotland which included the intention of putting Scotland’s interests first. That leaves three Peers, two are former British MPs for English constituencies and one a former British Civil servant. Who then of these noble Lords has the express credentials to represent and protect the interests of the English taxpayer?