Lib Dems seek fresh colleges debate

Nov 18 2012

The Liberal Democrats have called for another debate on college funding to be held at Holyrood next week.

The party said a fresh vote on the issue was needed because the Scottish Government was using incorrect figures during last week's sessions in the chamber.

Liberal Democrat education spokesman Liam McArthur said: "It is ridiculous that the Parliament was allowed to hold a debate on such an important issue, affecting hundreds of thousands of people, without the Government even knowing what its true budget is.

"The vote to support the Government's amendment on college education was evidently taken without the Government or its backbenchers being fully aware of its own figures for college funding.

"Now that government ministers have, belatedly, been told the true situation regarding college cuts, it's important that we have time to debate the issue again. The motion should contain the true and accurate figures for college funding and allow members to verify and confirm those figures."

Labour have said both First Minister Alex Salmond and Education Secretary Michael Russell had "misrepresented college funding over a period of months".

Mr Salmond apologised to MSPs last week, admitting that he had quoted the wrong figure for college budgets during exchanges at First Minister's Questions.

He had told MSPs that resource funding for colleges was £545 million in 2011-12 and £546 million in 2012-13. However, he explained the figure of £545 million for last year did not take into account changes to the budget and should have been £555.7 million.

Labour's education spokesman Hugh Henry told BBC Scotland's Sunday Politics Show that the credibility of both the First Minister and the Education Secretary were under question.

He said he had written to Mr Salmond, under Freedom of Information rules, asking if he will present to Parliament all the written information he had when he made his comments about the college funding figures to Holyrood.