UK Shared Prosperity Fund: Implications for Scotland (Amendment 2)
S6M-04159.2: As an amendment to motion S6M-04159 in the name of Richard Lochhead (UK Shared Prosperity Fund: Implications for Scotland), leave out from “further believes” to end and insert “recognises the importance of joint working between the Scottish and UK governments in order to achieve the common goal of strengthening Scotland’s communities; notes the benefits of previous EU funding, but also the concerns with the transparency in how it was administered and awarded in Scotland; further notes that cuts to the structural funding equivalent by the UK Government coincide with cuts to local government budgets by the SNP administration in cooperation with the Scottish Green Party to the detriment of communities across Scotland, and calls for the replacement for EU funding to fully match what has been available in the past and be administered as close to communities as possible.”

Original motion(S6M-04159):
That the Parliament agrees that the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund fails to meet the Conservative manifesto commitment to replace Scotland’s EU Structural Funds in full; understands that Scotland will receive only £212 million, which is £337 million short of the £549 million estimated to be an appropriate replacement for EU Structural Funds, and calls on the UK Government to immediately increase the value of the fund to at least the level provided previously by Scotland’s EU Structural Funds; believes that the failure to do this will leave communities and third sector organisations across Scotland without important resources needed to tackle poverty and inequality; further believes that the lack of decision making for the Scottish Government in the governance of the Fund undermines devolution; considers that this approach will fail Scotland’s communities, which have benefited substantially from decades of EU investment, and further calls on the UK Government to fully devolve control of the Fund to the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government.