Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
The Finance and Public Administration Committee has the lead role in scrutinising the Scottish Government’s Budget Bill each year.
Parliamentary scrutiny of the Budget aims to:
- influence how the Scottish Government’s Budget is prepared
- improve transparency and increase public awareness of the Budget
- consider how the government’s Budget should respond to new fiscal and wider policy challenges
- lead to better results and outcomes when compared against the Scottish Government’s targets and goals
The Budget Bill and supporting documents
The Budget Bill for 2023-24 was introduced on 22 December 2022.
Budget (Scotland) (No.2) Bill as introduced
The Scottish Government has published a supporting document that sets out its proposed spending and tax plans for 2023-24. You can access it, along with other related information, here:
The Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) published a report on the same day as the Budget documents were introduced:
Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts – December 2022
The SFC wrote to the Committee to advise that these reports had been published:
Letter from the Chair of the Scottish Fiscal Commission to the Convener of 15 December 2022
How the Budget process works
The Budget Bill is how the Parliament agrees public spending in Scotland. A Budget Bill is introduced in the Parliament every year.
This budget is for the financial year 2023-24.
The schedules of the Bill describe what money in the budget can be spent on and the maximum amounts that can be spent.
The Budget Bill follows a slightly different process to other Bills. You can find out more about the Budget Bill process here:
What is the Scottish Budget process?
Before the Bill was introduced, committees published pre-budget reports which aimed to influence the content of the Bill itself.
You can read about the Committee’s own pre-budget scrutiny, including its report and the Scottish Government response:
Oral Evidence
The Committee took evidence on the following dates:
Tuesday 10 January 2023
The Committee took evidence from the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for COVID Recovery, Scottish Government.
Read the agenda, papers and Official Report (substantially verbatim transcript) for this meeting
Tuesday 20 December 2022
The Committee took evidence from members of the Scottish Government's Expert Panel and then from the Scottish Fiscal Commission.
Read the agenda, papers and Official Report (substantially verbatim transcript) for this meeting
Tuesday 13 December 2022: UK Context
The Committee took evidence from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Read the agenda, papers and Official Report (substantially verbatim transcript for this meeting
Tuesday 6 December 2022: UK Context
The Committee took evidence from the Institute of Fiscal Studies.
Read the agenda, papers and Official Report (substantially verbatim transcript) for this meeting
Committee Report and Scottish Government Response
The Committee's report, Budget Scrutiny 2023-24, was published on 25 January 2023. You can read the report at the following link:
Finance and Public Administration Committee 2nd Report 2023: Budget Scrutiny 2023-24
The Scottish Government responded to the Committee's report on 3 February 2023. You can read the response at the following link: