Scotland’s fiscal position in the UK: accounting for the growth of the fiscal deficit in the post-devolution period

The publication of the annual Government Expenditure and Revenues in Scotland (GERS) Report by the Scottish Executive is a continuing source of political dispute. This set piece confrontation, however, seldom generates any realistic assessment of its merits, because it results in claim and counter-claim over its validity in colourful language. It is not the “bogus” statistical exercise its critics suggest, although not without problems of interpretation.