The Scottish Government publishes a spending budget each year. Parliamentary committees work to influence the development of the budget by producing reports ahead of the Budget that highlight key issues that need to be addressed.

The recommendations of the Joint Budget Review (JBR) will be the focus of the Climate Action Committee ahead of the Scottish Budget for 2027-28.

What is a Joint Budget Review?

In 2021, the Scottish Government and MSPs on two Scottish Parliament committees agreed to investigate how they could:

• improve budget information on climate change
• understand and reduce spend that will "lock in" future greenhouse gas emissions
• increase alignment between the budget and climate change plans

This joint review led to three recommendations for the Scottish Government:

• for future Scottish Budgets to include a description of the climate impacts of policies
• to provide a classification for how budget lines align, or do not align, with emission reduction goals
• to evaluate the climate impact of policies and their associated budgets early in their development

Following up on the recommendations

The Committee wants to revisit the recommendations of the Joint Budget Review. During this inquiry, it will ask:

• how climate allocations in the 2026-27 Budget have been spent in-year?
• what impact classifying emission reduction has had on spending decisions?
• whether savings targets in the Government’s Spending Review have affected delivery?
• what progress has been made on climate projects?
• what will change in how climate spend is presented in 2027-28?

The Committee will report its findings to the Scottish Government ahead of the Scottish Budget for 2027-28.