Scotland slips in wellbeing league table

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DAVID LEASK

figures for economic, health and other measures to see how Scotland would rank on the OECD’s Index of Social and Economic Wellbeing, which was published earlier this year.

Scotland, in his league table, fell from 16th to 20th behind France, Korea and Belgium while the UK stayed put at 12th place.

Mr McLaren, an outspoken and regular critic of the SNP, highlighted that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland had not performed well in the last decade under devolution.

He said: “The poor results over the decade to 2016 for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland suggest that devolution has not acted as a spur for improvement in these areas.

“However, to expect such a positive contribution in what might still be seen as a ‘learning’ phase may always have been overly optimistic.”

The OECD Index – which includes the world’s most advanced or large capitalist economies – is made up of real GDP, adjusted for prices, educational performance, employment and life expectancy.

It is not clear what bearing devolution would have over the crash in the oil price, which has cost Scotland and the rest of the UK tens of thousands of North Sea jobs.

Devolved governments do have responsibility for administering health and education, though experts always stress it is impossible to detach these measures from overall economic trends.

Educationalists disagree on whether so-called PISA rankings of international comparisons in education are meaningful. Scotland does well in such rankings but is slipping. On health, where life expectancy figures are less open to challenge, Scotland is doing badly. Scots are living longer but numbers are not rising as fast as those for parts of Eastern Europe.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Devolution has been overwhelmingly positive for Scotland – and statistics show that over the last decade people are living and remaining healthier for longer, inequality has shrunk, the gender pay gap has fallen, more young people are a university and crime has fallen to a 42-year low.”