Chamber and committees

In an extremely challenging financial climate, and following a worst case scenario UK Autumn Statement in which UK Ministers prioritised tax cuts over public spending, we have had to take difficult decisions in setting this budget. The amount Scotland has available to spend is still largely driven by the block grant, which is derived from the UK Government's spending decisions and continuing constraint on public expenditure. The block grant has fallen by 1.2% in real terms since 2022-23 and, because of the UK Government's failure to inflation-proof capital budgets, our capital spending power is due to contract by almost 10% in real terms over 5 years.

Despite this, I am pleased that this Government has committed £4.7 billion in capital and resource in 2024-25 for activities that will have a positive impact on delivery of our climate change goals, and funding of almost £3.9 billion for transport across Scotland. The total budget for my portfolio increases by £47.7 million in 2024-25, which is a £27.9 million (0.6%) reduction in real terms using GDP deflators published in November 2023.

A significant proportion of the expenditure in my portfolio is legally and contractually committed, and I have ensured that those commitments are met in full in this budget as well as allocating funding to support critical maintenance and renewal expenditure to ensure that the people of Scotland have access to a safe and reliable transport system.

I have considered equalities and fairer Scotland duties and progress towards our statutory targets for climate change and child poverty in prioritising the budget available to me. I refer to the Equalities and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement and Carbon Assessment published alongside this budget.

I am advised that data cited from Reform Scotland was gathered via FOI in October for school years, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2021-22 and 2022-23. Whilst most local authorities provided some information, I am advised that there was not 100% return across all areas and for all years – and the type of data provided by local authorities on this matter will vary.

Notwithstanding Schools and education authorities should engage with parents and carers whose children are at risk of non-attendance to provide reassurance on any concerns, overcome any barriers to learning, and support attendance.

At the end of 2023 I asked Education Scotland to undertake work to better understand the current barriers and challenges experienced by schools, children and young people and their families which influence school attendance. Education Scotland published this report, “Improving Attendance: Understanding the Issues,” on 28 November 2023.

As part of our response to this report, I have tasked the Interim Chief Executive of Education Scotland to work directly with Directors of Education to take forward improvement on attendance as a matter of priority. We are currently reviewing the findings of this report and will consider the recommendations for any future work on addressing attendance in schools.

We are also considering the findings from our Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research, which also published in November 2023, and provides evidence-based information on the extent to which pupils are disengaging from learning.

The Scottish Household Survey costs in the following table cover both the social survey (approximately 10,500 households interviewed per year) and the physical survey (approximately 3,000 residential properties inspected per year). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only 3,000 households were interviewed for the 2020 social survey, and the 2020 and 2021 social surveys were carried out by telephone rather than by the usual face-to-face method. There was no 2020 physical survey, and the 2021 physical survey inspections were external only, with information on internal aspects of the property collected from the householder by telephone.

Local authorities are responsible for the management of local roads and paths in their area, including design of low traffic neighbourhoods. The Scottish Government has provided guidance for these within the National Planning Framework , the “ Our Place ” website and Cycling by Design guidance.

The Scottish Government cannot direct the independent Scottish Housing Regulator to publish the daily rate of each person on its statutory managers list and, as such, will not be requesting that they do so.

In an extremely challenging financial climate, and following a worst case scenario UK Autumn Statement in which UK Ministers prioritised tax cuts over public spending, we have had to take difficult decisions in setting this budget. The amount Scotland has available to spend is still largely driven by the block grant, which is derived from the UK Government's spending decisions and continuing constraint on public expenditure. The block grant has fallen by 1.2% in real terms since 2022-23 and, because of the UK Government's failure to inflation-proof capital budgets, our capital spending power is due to contract by almost 10% in real terms over 5 years.

Despite this, I am pleased that this Government has committed £4.7 billion in capital and resource in 2024-25 for activities that will have a positive impact on delivery of our climate change goals, and funding of almost £3.9 billion for transport across Scotland. The total budget for my portfolio increases by £47.7 million in 2024-25, which is a £27.9 million (0.6%) reduction in real terms using GDP deflators published in November 2023.

A significant proportion of the expenditure in my portfolio is legally and contractually committed, and I have ensured that those commitments are met in full in this budget as well as allocating funding to support critical maintenance and renewal expenditure to ensure that the people of Scotland have access to a safe and reliable transport system.

I have considered equalities and fairer Scotland duties and progress towards our statutory targets for climate change and child poverty in prioritising the budget available to me. I refer to the Equalities and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement and Carbon Assessment published alongside this budget.

The reduction is driven by a reduction to the level of financial transactions allocation for 2024-25. This funds loans given out under our funding schemes to support home owners and businesses install energy efficiency measures and clean heating system. Despite this reduction in financial transactions, the overall settlement across capital increased by 7.5% which should enable us to maintain all our schemes on a similar basis as they have run during 2023-24. In the event that any the scope or eligibility of any funding scheme needs to change during the course of 2024-25 the need for an impact assessment will be considered at that time.

Providing high quality early learning and childcare is critical to supporting children to recover from the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, including by supporting them to participate in much needed socialisation and play-based activities.

Scotland is the only part of the UK to offer 1,140 hours a year of funded ELC to all three and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds regardless of their parents’ working status - putting children first. We have put quality at the heart of delivery of the expansion of funded early learning and childcare. Latest Care Inspectorate data show that the quality of funded early learning and childcare services remains very high, with over 90% of funded providers found to be good or better in all quality key questions.

We continue to support children’s recovery through our investment in universal national programmes like Bookbug and Play Talk Read which provide books, activity packs for the home and free drop-in sessions across the country to support children’s language, learning and social skills through the provision of play, talking and singing. I also think it is important to highlight that many parents lost out on socialising with their children outwith the home and am proud that through approaches such as Stay and Play, there are opportunities for parents to do so, which will also greatly benefit children. We wish to explore models like this through our childcare expansion, including the Early Adopter Communities and expansion of funded childcare to more two-year-olds.

The Scottish Government has been working in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support to improve the support offered to those affected by cancer through the Transforming Cancer Care Programme (TCC) since 2016. This partnership - the first of its kind in the UK - has seen £18 million invested to date. Both the Scottish Government and Macmillan Cancer Support have committed to a further £4.5 million investment each over the next 3 years.

This will ensure that every patient with cancer in Scotland has access to a specialist key support worker, who can provide emotional, financial and practical support.

Cancer is classified as a disability under the Equality Act 2010. Although the Act is a reserved matter, we would expect employers to adopt the Scottish Government’s Fair Work approach, including flexible working practices, to support employees affected by cancer.

As set out in our draft budget the capital funding position is extremely challenging, with a UK Government cut of some 10% in our capital budget over the next five years. That has inevitably led to some difficult decisions on what capital projects will be progressed.

The Scottish Government will bring forward a revised pipeline of infrastructure investment in the spring, alongside the medium-term financial strategy, at which point we would hope that the fiscal outlook will be clearer.