With just six months until the UK is set to leave the European Union, Ivan McKee, minister for trade, investment and innovation, has asked again for detailed information on how the proposed replacement programme will work in Scotland and what the value of the fund will be.

The letter addressed to Simon Clarke, minister of state for regional growth and local government, is as follows: 

Dear Simon,

I hope you are well. 

As I flagged in my letter to you of 3 June, we find ourselves only some six months away from the end of all EU Structural Funds programmes across the UK with no further detailed information on how the proposed successor vehicle, the Shared Prosperity Fund, will operate.

Despite the lack of meaningful engagement on this with the Scottish Government and my colleagues in the other devolved nations, I have however, noticed that some information has been published about the fund in other places, such as the Conservative Party Website.  I note also that Cabinet Office appears to have started recruitment for officials to operate an EU replacement grant programme and finally  I have heard some rumours that decisions around the operation of the SPF in Scotland may have already been taken.   I am also dismayed that the decision to withdraw from almost all of the European Territorial Cooperation programmes was made public without the Scottish Government being alerted in advance.

As I am sure you can appreciate, this prolonged uncertainty and confusing information environment is very unhelpful.  My officials are working on plans for how the replacement programme will operate in Scotland, using the results of our recent consultation  as an evidence base.  However, without clarity on any of the key elements of the fund from the UK Government, we are constrained in how far we can go with this.

I must stress that these funds will play a vital role in our planning for economic recovery from COVID, and that in the absence of information, we will make plans on the assumption that these funds will be available for SG and our partners to spend at our discretion in the same areas as ESF.

I am therefore requesting again that you share with me and my devolved colleagues, as much information as possible on the progress that the UK Government has made with developing the replacement funding vehicle and provide a response to the points that I have made above.   My colleague, Michael Russell, Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, Europe and External Affairs, has also written to Michael Gove in similar terms. 

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely

Ivan McKee