UK budget date will delay Scottish spending plans

Shona Robison said the delayed UK budget date was "unhelpful"

The Scottish government says it is "highly unlikely" it will be able to present its budget before Christmas after it emerged that the UK budget will not be set out until late November.

The Scottish budget is normally published in December.

But Finance Secretary Shona Robison said this would be "incredibly difficult" this year because of the need to analyse the Chancellor's plans.

Rachel Reeves will set out her UK budget - including the block grant underpinning Holyrood's funding - on 26 November.

Robison said it was "deeply disappointing" that Scottish ministers were not consulted in advance.

She said: "This delay by the UK government makes it incredibly difficult for the Scottish government to undertake the detailed financial planning needed to bring forward our own budget in the usual timescale.

"Unless the UK government reconsiders this decision, it is highly unlikely that the Scottish government will be able to bring forward our budget and spending review before Christmas."

'Delayed until January'

The current Holyrood term ends in March 2026 ahead of next May's Scottish Parliament election.

Robison said it was "incredibly unhelpful" that the initial parliamentary scrutiny of her proposals will now "likely be delayed into January".

She said the move makes Scotland look like "an afterthought" and it was not the "positive working relationship" promised by the UK government.

The Chancellor announced the date for the Budget on Wednesday

On Wednesday, the chancellor confirmed that she had asked the fiscal watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to prepare an independent forecast for the late November date to accompany the Budget.

Reeves said she will prioritise curbing inflation and borrowing costs, keeping public spending under control by meeting her fiscal rules, and kick-starting economic growth.

However she is widely expected to hike taxes to balance the books - with the relatively late Budget date potentially giving her time to lay the groundwork for any such changes.

In a video posted on X, the chancellor said: "We must bring inflation and borrowing costs down by keeping a tight grip on day-to-day spending through our non-negotiable fiscal rules.

"It's only by doing this can we afford to do the things we want to do.

"If renewal is our mission and growth is our challenge, investment and reform are our tools."

Holyrood's budget is always set at a bit of a breakneck pace, with proposals announced in December, scrutinised in January and passed into law in February.

MSPs frequently complain that they don't have time to pick thoroughly enough over the detail of the £60bn package of tax and spending plans.

And things are going to be even more squeezed if the whole process is nudged into the new year.

It is becoming a bit of a theme that Scottish ministers feel they are not included in the thinking of their UK counterparts, for all that there was talk of relations being reset when Labour came into office.

The looming election, pitting the parties of government against each other, will add fuel to the inevitable row over the process.

But ultimately the substance of the budget will be the most important thing when we come to the polls a few months later - how much money there is in the block grant, and how Scottish ministers choose to allocate their budget.