I will speak briefly, convener. Thanks for having me here. As members of the committee will know, the autumn budget revision provides the first of two opportunities to formally amend the Scottish budget for 2019-20. We have once again provided a brief guide to the revision, which officials prepared for committee members.
As usual, this year’s autumn budget revision deals with four different types of amendments to the budget—a few funding changes, technical adjustments that have no impact on spending power, a small number of Whitehall transfers and some budget-neutral transfers of resources within portfolios. The net impact of all those changes is an increase of £536.9 million in the approved budget, to take the budget to just over £43 billion. Table 1.2 on page 5 of the supporting document shows the approved portfolio budgets following the changes that are sought in the revision.
I will briefly go through the changes in turn. The first set of changes includes the deployment of funding across multiple portfolios to cover most of the costs incurred by public bodies as a result of the increase to employer pension contributions; additional funding for the teachers pay settlement; financial transactions to transport for the low-carbon transport fund; and further funding for peatlands. In total, those changes increase the budget by £497.1 million.
The second set of adjustments are technical ones that have a net impact of £26.9 million on the aggregate position. Those adjustments are necessary to ensure that the budget is consistent with accounting requirements and with the final outturn that will be reported in our annual accounts.
Thirdly, there are the Whitehall transfers and allocations from the Treasury. There is a net positive impact on the budget of £13.1 million that relates to small transfers for money advice services, the sure start maternity grant, the single gateway project, the govtech catalyst process, cybersecurity and Forestry Commission UK cross-border functions.
The final part of the budget revision concerns the transfer of funds within and between portfolios to better align the budgets with profiled spending, which committee members will be familiar with. As in past years, there are a number of internal portfolio transfers that have no effect on portfolio totals but ensure that internal budgets are monitored and managed effectively. All those transfers between portfolios are noted in the supporting document.
As we move towards the financial year end, we will continue—in line with our normal practice—to monitor forecast outturn against budget and, wherever possible, seek to utilise any emerging underspends to ensure that we make optimum use of the available resources in 2019-20 and proactively manage the flexibility that is provided under the fiscal framework agreement between the Treasury and the Scottish Government. I will provide the committee with a mid-year report on revenue and spending to date alongside the spring budget revision when it is published, to improve the transparency of the budget management process.
I am happy to answer any questions.