Briefing paper: Multi-year budgeting in Scotland

A new agreement on multi-year budgeting between the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament will help long term thinking and support a more open conversation about spending plans and investment choices.  

Over the last year the David Hume Institute’s Action Project considered the actions needed to move faster towards a more prosperous, sustainable, inclusive and fair country.

Multi-year planning helps effective investment and productivity, and can be particularly useful on longer term projects, many of which are linked to climate action. 

Despite repeated calls over many years to publish multi-year spending plans, it has proved difficult for Scottish Government to achieve this.  As public finances become even tighter post pandemic, this will remain a challenge.

Public and third sector organisations want more certainty about funding to allow them to plan for more than one year at a time. Draft multi-year budgets will help public services plan more efficiently as we emerge from the pandemic.

The Institute’s paper proposes a way forward for the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Government and Audit Scotland to make multi-year budgeting the established norm in Scotland.