£90 million will be awarded to local authorities, to support family budgets and to freeze Council Tax.
Public sector workers who earn less than £25,000 per annum can expect to receive a minimum of a 3% pay increase, and there will be a 1% rise for individuals earning above that amount. This will be capped at £800 for those earning over £80,000.
Some other key points include:
• £11.6 billion for local government, to include the £90 million for the local authorities opting to freeze Council Tax. There will also be £259 million allocated to one-off funding • £1.9 billion will be put towards primary health care for delivering more services in the community • £98.2 million towards improving Scotland’s digital infrastructure, and delivering access to high quality broadband and mobile coverage • £711.6 million will be allocated to affordable housing, and £68 million for the first full year of the Scottish Child Payment • £55 million towards a programme to support town centres and community-led regeneration projects • Over £3.1 billion for resource and capital investment for education and skills. £567 million will be put towards providing 1,140 hours of early learning and childcare • £1.3 billion for the Scottish Police Authority • £1.6 billion towards rail and bus services • The Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund will be doubled, to enable tourist attractions and local communications to make improvements for an increase in the numbers of visitors • £27 million will be put towards the expansion of woodland creation and the associated infrastructure
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What is Purdah? 12 February 2021
Purdah is typically the pre-election period in which civil servants are expected to refrain from making any announcements that concern new or controversial government initiatives. There is also a period of purdah that is observed prior to the delivery of a Budget, in which civil servants avoid discussing any matters which have relevance to that Budget.
Prior to a general election, the purdah period typically begins six weeks before the scheduled election, but there are no concrete timelines around pre-Budget purdah.
The Budget is due to be delivered by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, on 3 March 2021. Whilst we have no official confirmation of the date on which purdah will commence, we suspect that it will be very soon, given that the Budget date is less than a month away. It could be argued that purdah does not have direct impacts on payroll professionals as such, but it does have an impact on the work carried out by the Policy and Research team here at the CIPP. Many of the meetings that are scheduled with government departments could be cancelled or delayed, as officials sometimes take the stance that it is unnecessary to attend sessions where they cannot discuss the items originally intended on the agenda.
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Government confirms intentions to publish various tax consultations and calls for evidence on 23 March 2021 19 February 2021
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Payroll: need to know
cipp.org.uk
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