Improvements to Holyrood’s Budget process are ‘needed’, says Finance Committee

The findings follow a parliamentary review of the effectiveness of the budget process in practice, over the current five-year session of Parliament.

The committee agreed:

• with the OECD that the Scottish Fiscal Commission should broaden and deepen its spending analysis beyond social security to encompass a wider range of budget areas and help inform political debate, and that discussions should begin with the Scottish Government on progressing this work
• the government’s Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) should include not just the challenges and pressures the country faces over the next five years, but also how spending projections have been arrived at, how medium- and longer-term financial pressures will be managed, and how risks that materialise will be mitigated
• assurances be sought from the government that Scottish Spending Reviews will be undertaken with increased regularity in future, following each UK Spending Review
• a comprehensive fiscal literacy training programme be put in place for new MSPs elected at the 2026 elections, and continuous development for all MSPs during the five-year cycle.

The committee concluded:

• improvements are required in the strategic, financial planning by the Scottish Government, and that significant, long-term fiscal pressures in Scotland can no longer be avoided.

Finance and Public Administration Committee Convener Kenneth Gibson MSP said:

“We believe the Scottish budget process, and its building blocks, remain fit-for-purpose. However, the way in which it has operated in practice this session has been far from ideal, and improvements are now needed.

“Our recommendations in this report are therefore intended to ensure that the objectives of the budget process - including improved transparency and awareness, responsiveness to emerging fiscal and policy challenges, greater influence and better outcomes - can now be fully met.

“Our view remains that improvements are also required in the Scottish Government’s strategic, financial planning. This should be supported by an improved quality of data and key documentation published by the government, within the timescales expected by Parliament.

“Scotland’s significant, long-term fiscal pressures can no longer be avoided. Our committee looks forward to examining how the Scottish Government is starting to respond to these pressures.

“We’ll begin that scrutiny very shortly, ahead of the 2026-27 budget process getting underway.”