About the Inquiry
The Parliament has agreed a new process for budget scrutiny based on the recommentations of the Budget Process Review Group. The Group which consisted of a range of external experts as well as Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government officials published its final report on 30 June 2017.
The budget process should have the following core objectives-
- To have a greater influence on the formulation of the budget;
- To improve transparency and raise public understanding and awareness of the budget;
- To respond effectively to new fiscal and wider policy challenges; and
- To lead to better outputs and outcomes as measured against benchmarks and stated objectives.
Budget scrutiny should be carried out within the followin framework-
- Full Year Approach: a broader process in which committees have the flexibility to incorporate budget scrutiny including public engagement into their work prior to the publication of firm and detailed spending proposals.
- Continuous cycle: scrutiny should be continous with an emphasis on developing an understanding of the impact of budgetary decisions over a number of years including budgetary trends;
- Output/outcome focused: scrutiny should be evaluative with an emphasis on what budgets have achieved and aim to achieve over the long term, including scrutiny of equalities outcomes;
- Fiscal Responsibility: scruitiny should have a long term outlook and focus more on prioritisation, addressing fiscal constraints and the impact of increasing demand for public services; and
- Interdependent: scrutiny should focus more on the interdependent nature of many of the policies which the budget is seeking to deliver.
The Committee circulated guidance to the subject committees with further information on the new process and the requirement to produce pre-budget reports at least 6 weeks prior to the Scottish Government publishing the Budget.
Read the Guidance to Committes below.
Budget Guidance
Correspondence
Letter from the Scottish Fiscal Commission regarding timing of next forecast, 23 March 2021 (117 KB PDF)
Letter dated 17 March 2021 from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance following the Committee meeting on 8 March.
Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance on the provisional Block Grant Adjustment, 15 March 2021 (241KB PDF)
Letter from the Finance Committee in the Welsh Parliament regarding timing of UK Budgets, 10 March 2021 (179KB PDF)
Letter from Dame Susan Rice to the Convener along with a copy of the SFC Fiscal Update which is being published ahead of Stage 3, 380KB PDF)
Letter to the Convener from Dame Susan Rice regarding the publication of SFC estimates of the costs of the Stage Two amendments for Non-Domestic Rates and the Self-Isolation Support Group (333KB PDF)
Letter from the Convener to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Stephen Barclay MP, in relation to the publication of our budget report 2021-22 (99.2KB PDF)
Letter from the Scottish Fiscal Commission in response to the Committee's Budget 2021-22 report, 3 March 2021 (117KB PDF)
Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance on the Committee's Report on the Scottish Budget 2021/22 (401KB PDF)
Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance providing an update on allocation of 2020-21 consequential funding (82.6KB PDF)
Letter from the Convener to the Presiding Officer, 23 February 2021 (110KB PDF)
Letter from the Presiding Officer, 8 February 2021 (122KB PDF)
Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance providing further information from the evidence session on the 10th February 2021 (322KB PDF)
Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance on 2020-21 Consequential funding and triggering of a Scottish Specific Economic Shock (185KB PDF)
Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance regarding the budget process and confirmation of budget timetable (163KB PDF)
Letter from COSLA dated 10 February 2021 updating on lost income as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, following Committee meeting in November 2020 (180KB PDF)
Evidence
On the 27th January 2021 the Committee took evidence on the UK Economic and Fiscal Outlook. You can read the papers and minute for this meeting here.
On the 3rd February 2021 the Committee took evidence on the Budget 2021/22 Scrutiny. You can read the papers and minute for this meeting here.
Briefing
Paper from the Adviser on the Scottish Budget 2021-22 Forceast and Fiscal Framework issues - prepared for the meeting on 10 February 2021 (261KB PDF)