Finance and Public Administration Committee
Budget Scrutiny 2024-25
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 2024-25 was introduced on 21 December 2023.
Budget (Scotland) (No.3) Bill as introduced
The Scottish Government has published a number of supporting documents that sets out its proposed spending and tax plans for 2024-25. You can access these, 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 2023
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 19 December 2023
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 2024-25.
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 20 February 2024
The Committee took evidence on the Scottish Government's response to its Budget Scrutiny 2024-25 report from the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Scottish Government.
Read the agenda, papers and Official Report (substantially verbatim transcript) for this meeting
Tuesday 16 January 2024
The Committee took evidence from:
Panel 1: Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body.
Panel 2: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Scottish Government.
Read the agenda, papers and Official Report (substantially verbatim transcript) for this meeting
Tuesday 9 January 2024
The Committee took evidence from:
Panel 1: Fraser of Allander Institute, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Professor David Bell.
Panel 2 (roundtable): Audit Scotland, Carnegie UK, Colleges Scotland, Federation of Small Businesses, Glasgow City Council, GMB Scotland, NatureScot, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.
Read the agenda, papers and Official Report (substantially verbatim transcript) for this meeting
Wednesday 20 December 2023
The Committee took evidence from the Scottish Fiscal Commission.
Read the agenda, papers and Official Report (substantially verbatim transcript) for this meeting
Tuesday 12 December 2023: UK context
The Committee took evidence from:
Panel 1: Office for Budget Responsibility.
Panel 2: Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Read the agenda, papers and Official Report (substantially verbatim transcript) for this meeting
Additional Written Submissions
The following organisations wrote to the Committee to submit their views on the Budget and to inform the Committee's scrutiny:
Written Submission from Universities Scotland (173KB, pdf) posted 11 January 2024
Written Submission from the Scottish Retail Consortium (445KB, pdf) posted 11 January 2024
Written Submission from CIPD (90KB, pdf) posted 24 January 2024
Committee Report
The Committee's report, Budget Scrutiny 2024-25, was published on 31 January 2024. Read the report at the following link:
Finance and Public Administration Committee 1st Report 2024 (Session 6), Budget Scrutiny 2024-25.
Scottish Government Response
The Scottish Government responded to the Committee's report on 16 February 2024. You can find the Scottish Government's response by expanding the Correspondence section below and clicking the link titled "Budget Scrutiny 2024-25 report - Scottish Government response".