I have heard "I'll give you the skinny" (on something) to mean that 'I will give you all the details.' It can be anything from a business plan to juicy gossip. Both of my friends who use this expression are originally from the South West US.
Isn't "t" often used instead of "ed" in the UK, ie learnt instead of learned ? Thus skint would be skinned. Perhaps the root of this could also be scant.
Then we might say
"He could not give me the skinny on the situation because he only had scant details."