About the Scottish Parliament

The aim of this paper is to provide guidance to parliamentary committees on the budget process, which is based on the Budget Review Group’s 2017 review of the budget  process. The Group’s report can be found here: 

Budget Review Group - Final Report

Outcomes based budget scrutiny underpins the approach for subject committee budget scrutiny. The Scottish Government has adopted an outcome- based approach to its objectives since 2007. Ministers are expected to work towards the shared objectives of government and a new emphasis was placed on partnership working with the whole of the public sector expected to contribute to the delivery of national objectives as set out in the National Performance Framework (NPF) , introduced in 2007 and last refreshed in 2018. The NPF provides public bodies with a range of high level, national outcomes towards which they should all be striving and a unified vision and quantifiable benchmarks against which future progress can be assessed.

This outcomes-based scrutiny approach is a key part of the budget process which provides a means for evaluating the economic and social outcomes being achieved by public spending. It involves bringing financial and performance information together, so that the impact of spending decisions can be better understood. This approach is illustrated below.

Public bodies and councils have an important role in delivering Scottish Government policy and contributing towards improved outcomes and decisions about their overall funding are a key part of the budget process. In adopting an outcomes-based scrutiny approach, committees should scrutinise the extent to which public bodies within their remit are spending their allocations well and achieving outcomes.

Public bodies publish corporate plans which set out in detail how they plan to use their available resources and they are required to consider the National Outcomes in carrying out their functions. Public bodies also publish a range of information about their performance in the application of public spending including annual reports and accounts.

Additional information to support outcomes-based scrutiny should include performance audit reports and annual audit reports on individual public bodies. These reports provide objective information and independent assessment on the public finances, performance and value for money. Audits often examine whether public money is being used to best effect to support the delivery of outcomes. 

There is an ongoing programme of work undertaken on behalf of the Auditor General and Accounts Commission that can be drawn from to support outcomes-based scrutiny by committees. Auditor General Reports should continue to be considered by the Public Audit Committee in the first instance.

A critical aspect of the Parliament’s budget evaluation and formulation activity is that it is evidence-based so subject committees should also consider relevant Scottish Government and public body performance plans and reports, alongside other available evidence on the intended impact of policies and public spending and the effect these are having.

This helps the Parliament contribute to the evidence base available for policy setting and for it to influence the Scottish Government’s budget decisions. To support their scrutiny of selected themes or areas of activity, committees are able to draw on a basket of evidence drawn across a range of sources. This includes published material, as well as requesting written submissions and oral evidence sessions with ministers, Scottish Government officials, public bodies, service users and other stakeholders. The Group considered the range of evidence likely to be available to committees, and a summary of this is shown in the figure below—

The Group recognised that committees would be unlikely to be able to undertake detailed scrutiny of spend and performance in all areas under their remit every year. It concluded that it would be necessary for them to agree the themes or area of activity they wished to focus on, and those they wished to track through time. Considerations might include—

• the policy and spending priorities of the Scottish Government
• significant areas of public spending or significant changes to spending levels
• importance to specific national outcomes that the committee has an interest in, including overarching equality considerations
• where progress of national outcomes is slow or going in the wrong direction.