Scotland used to spend more per head on Health, but that spending gap has declined over the last 20 years
This is a marked trend, perhaps most easily seen when looking at the spending lines for Scotland and the rest of the UK - see here.
The reality of this convergence in headline spending per head on Health is not disputed.
SNP MSP Maree Todd has claimed that "front-line health spending in Scotland. [..] is £323 per person, which is 10.6 per cent higher than the figure for England". The claim appears to be a slightly mangled version of this SNP statement: "Independent research from the SNP Rebuttal Unit shows that in Scotland, the SNP in Government spends £3,377 on front line health per person, which is 10.6% (£323) more per head than spend by the Tory UK Government in England and 2.2% (£74) higher than the Labour Government in Wales". Unfortunately "front line health" is not a well-defined term and we have been unable to find any "independent research" published by the SNP's rebuttal unit that would allow us to audit-trail this claim. It seems the IFS have encountered similar problems when it comes to the SNP's claims about health spending.