Current status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 17 December 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact of the proposal in its draft Budget 2025-26 to reduce the consumer policy and advice budget.
The Scottish Government has taken the decision to realign funding for scams prevention and awareness, with the requisite funding reallocated from its consumer policy and advice budget to Consumer Scotland’s budget. Consumer Scotland also now receives and manages grant funding for Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) for its advocacy and education programme which was previously allocated from the consumer policy and advice budget.
Realigning these funding streams has had the effect of reducing the consumer policy and advice budget, while the Consumer Scotland budget has correspondingly increased.