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Prolonged Westminster austerity, the economic damage of Brexit, a global pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the cost of living crisis have all placed enormous and growing pressure on the public finances.

For example, Brexit has reduced the size of the UK economy by 2.5 per cent, equating to a £2.3 billion annual cut in revenue in Scotland.

Decisions for 2025-26 will be published as part of the 2025-26 Scottish Budget on 4 December. Scottish Income Tax policy for 2025-26 will be announced during the annual Budget process.

Scottish Income Tax policy for 2025-26 will be announced during the annual Budget process.

The Scottish Government committed to review and improve our process of developing, implementing, and reviewing devolved regulation to meet our economic, environmental and societal aims within the National Strategy for Economic Transformation. While there are no current plans to implement a Primary Authority system for devolved regulation, we will consider the merit of Primary Authority provisions with business and regulatory stakeholders in line with the NSET commitment and New Deal for Business Group recommendations.

The Scottish Budget 2024-25 ensures that over 95% of non-domestic properties continue to be liable for a lower property tax rate than anywhere else in the UK.

The UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 places legal duties on public authorities and provides legal protection for children’s rights that was not previously available in Scotland, and is not available in any other part of the UK.

The Scottish Government expects public authorities to ensure that they fulfil their duties within the Act, including under Article 23, to ensure all rights under UNCRC are respected, protected and fulfilled. We have supported public authorities with their approach to implementation through: non-statutory guidance; a children’s rights guide for senior leaders; an introduction to Children’s Rights e-learning and guidance on Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments. We have also provided funding to the Improvement Service and NHS Education Scotland to assist local authorities and health boards to fulfil their UNCRC duties. Statutory guidance will be published this month and a Children’s Rights Skills and Knowledge Framework will be available before the end of the year.

As the information requested runs over several pages, a copy of the table listing those Lead Partners paid between September 2019 and 31 December 2023 has been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre BIB number 65192 .

The final European Social Fund (ESF) expenditure figures and reimbursements will not be known until the second half of 2025 when the figures will be published.

The Scottish Government was liable for paying all compliant claims submitted by Lead Partners. The figure at 31 December 2023 was £73.7m.

At no time were payments to those Lead Partners who submitted a fully compliant and verifiable claims paused. All audit findings were resolved with both programmes being successfully lifted from suspension by the European Commission.

The Scottish Government revised it procedures for the distribution of European structural and investment funds eight times over the period between 2014 and December 2023.