Question reference: S5W-34699
- Asked by: Dean Lockhart, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 21 January 2021
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Current status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 5 February 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much Scotland was allocated in EU structural funds in each year since 2014, and what the reason was for any reduction in allocation in any year
Answer
At the start of the Programme, the initial total EU structural fund allocation to Scotland was €941m for the 2014-20 period. This was split between two programmes, €465m to the European Social Fund (ESF) and €476m to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Although the programme is not allocated on an annual basis, it equates to an average of €134m per year.
The European Commission, as part of their usual management and governance cycle, automatically de-commit fund allocations from the ESF and ERDF Programmes that have not met their financial targets during a calendar year. These financial targets relate to the delivery of projects and activities delivered by a national network of Lead Partners, which includes local authorities and third sector organisations.
There are a number of reasons for de-commitments which include but are not limited to:
- Difficulties in accurately forecasting expenditure profiles. For example at the start of the programme the number of future participants in the Youth Employment Initiative projects turned out to be over-estimated as soon as the successful impact of economic recovery took effect and youth unemployment dramatically reduced. Young people in Scotland had been able to access a range of choices around skills, training and education which were adequately resourced and therefore the take up of European funded YEI places during the early years of the programme significantly reduced.
- European Structural Funding rules preclude the quick or easy movement of unspent allocations between priorities, years or partners. Therefore when demand does not materialise at the rate that had been anticipated, those projects are often scaled back and it is not possible to divert the allocated funds elsewhere.
- The size and complexity of the programmes meant that they took longer than anticipated to establish at the start, which has enabled lessons to be learned for future funding programmes.
- Financial challenges of our lead partners in securing match funding to support their activities.