Covid-19: Implications for public finances in Scotland
The briefing paper breaks down the £5.3 billion announced by the Scottish Government up to the end of July 2020 to tackle the impact of coronavirus. And it highlights the extra risks posed to the public finances by the pandemic.
Stephen Boyle, the Auditor General for Scotland, said:
"The scale of the financial response to Covid-19 has been significant, and the Scottish Government has made a good start to ensuring its spending is transparent. It must continue doing so.
The unpredictable nature of the pandemic means more of the Scottish budget may need to be repriortised in the future to respond to Covid-19. And that means the Scottish Government and its partners need to be clear about which services are essential to delivering on national priorities"..
Letter from Acting Convener to Committee Conveners, 22 September 2020 (95KB pdf)
Joint letter from the Auditor General for Scotland and Accounts Commission to Acting Convener, 7 October 2020 (89KB pdf)
Additional Information from Audit Scotland to Acting Convener, 9 October 2020 (152KB pdf)
Committee correspondence
Letter from Convener of Economy, Energy and Fairwork Committee to Acting Convener, 6 October 2020 (140KB pdf)
Letter from Convener of Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee to Acting Convener, 9 October 2020 (118KB pdf)
Correspondence from Clerk of the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee to Clerk of PAPLS, 23 October 2020 (26KB pdf)
Covid- 19: Tracking the implications of Covid-19 on Scotland's public finances
Covid-19: Tracking the implications of Covid-19 on Scotland's public finances
Briefing paper - Covid-19: Tracking the implications of Covid-19 on Scotland's public finances
Oral evidence session March 11 2021
The Committee will took evidence from the Auditor General and Audit Scotland.
Please read the Official Report from 11 March 2021.
Meeting papers for 11 March 2021
Minutes from 11 March 2021
Oral evidence session 18 March 2021
The Committee took evidence from Liz Ditchburn, Director-General Economy, Jackie McAllister, Chief Financial Officer, Richard McCallum, Interim Director of Health Finance and Governance and Andrew Watson, Director of Budget and Public Spending, Scottish Government;
Followed by;
Stephen Boyle, Auditor General for Scotland and Mark Taylor, Audit Director, Audit Services, Audit Scotland.
Please read the Official Report from 18 March 2021.
Meeting papers for 18 March 2021
Minutes from 18 March 2021
The Committee agreed at its meeting on 18 March 2021 to close its scrutiny of the report.
Covid - 19
The Committee took evidence from the Auditor General for Scotland on the impact of the pandemic on Audit Scotland's work on March 19, 2020.
Read about the Committee's initial work on Covid-19.