Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 17 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what mechanism exists, or is being considered, to enable financial costs for local authority services to be shared across Scotland when they result from policy decisions not made locally, such as changes to asylum policy.
Funding for local government is distributed to councils on the basis of a needs-based formula agreed with COSLA on behalf of all 32 local authorities. Any changes to that funding, including new funding or changes to distribution, are subject to formal financial governance processes through the joint Scottish Government and COSLA Officers’ Settlement and Distribution Group (SDG). SDG recommendations are then subject to political sign-off from Scottish Ministers and COSLA Leaders.
This mechanism allows for the costs of targeted interventions to be shared across Local Authorities if Leaders accept recommendations from SDG to do so.
Similarly, in the past the Scottish Government has sought to prioritise funding for specific Local Authorities to reflect unique situations or circumstances or to recognise their contribution to the roll-out of national policies such as Ukraine resettlement funding. However, it is important to note that targeting of funding in this way can be at odds with the principles set out in the Verity House Agreement.
The vast majority of funding to Local Government is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities. Should councils wish to work together to share costs on a regional or national basis, they are at liberty to do so outside the auspices of SDG.