A main part of an MSP’s role is to inspect and analyse Scottish Government spending. They do this as part of their job:
The Financial Scrutiny Unit (FSU) works within SPICe. It gives independent analysis and support to Parliament committees and to MSPs. It advises on budgets and issues that affect the Scottish Government and Parliament. This includes:
The FSU:
The FSU produces briefings and blogs on a range of areas such as:
You can find briefings on our Digital Hub and our blogs on SPICe Spotlight. SPICe has a range of explainer animations on the SPICe blog site.
The FSU also produce other resources and tools to help Members and committees with financial scrutiny.
UK Government budget announcements affect the Scottish budget. The UK Government may make changes on spending in areas that are devolved in Scotland. This can mean more funding is allocated to Scotland via consequentials. The Barnett formula calculates these resulting consequentials. These are based on Scotland’s population share of changes to UK Government spending in areas that are devolved in Scotland.
We would welcome any feedback from users. Please contact SPICe with your views.