• The Scottish government has pledged to scrap the two-child cap on benefits north of the border
• SNP ministers will aim to provide funding to affected families by 2026
• A Scottish government source said they believed the measure would cost between £110m and £150m
• The Scottish Fiscal Commission has said the policy is uncosted because they were only told about it last week, describing it as a “fiscal risk”
• The government claims its tax choices will put money in the pockets of low and middle income earners and provide help for hard-pressed pubs and restaurants
• Record NHS investment was announced – with the money aiming to reduce waiting lists and make it easier for people to see their GP

• Robison confirmed there will be extra winter heating payments for older Scots

• She announced £4.9bn of funding for postive climate action
• There will be an increase in funding for local services, with no cap or freeze on council tax rises
• Opposition MSPs accused the Scottish government of financial mismanagement
• The Tories said the Budget was "more of the same" and Labour argues the government was going in the wrong direction
• The Greens says they can't back the Budget as it stands, while the Lib Dems will not guarantee their support yet

That brings our live coverage to a close. Editors were Mary McCool and Graeme Esson. Writers were Ashleigh Keenan-Bryce, Katy Scott and Craig Hutchison. Thank you for joining us.

Jamie McIvor
BBC Scotland News Correspondent

Scotland’s biggest teachers’ union has given a cautious welcome to the support for schools outlined in the budget.

The EIS previously called for a clear plan on how the Scottish government will deliver manifesto commitments to recruit 3,500 extra teachers and reduce teachers’ class-contact commitments to a maximum of 21 hours per week.

The union says neither of these issues were mentioned explicitly in the Budget statement but some progress may still be possible.

General secretary Andrea Bradley said there was welcome mention of a fund to train teachers in Additional Support Needs (ASN).

However this was focused on retraining existing teachers instead of employing more.

“Whilst there is mention of supporting new teachers into the profession, our schools require sufficient numbers of them," she said.

"A sticking plaster on a gaping wound will not deliver on the promise of ASN legislation, nor help close the poverty-related achievement and attainment gap."

Glenn Campbell
BBC Scotland Political Editor

It is more likely than not that a Budget deal is achieved by the time it is voted on in February.

Why? SNP ministers know they are not in a majority position and have put together a Budget which has something in it that every other party wants.

As Shona Robison read out her speech, we played a version of political bingo in the office and picked out policies that came from the Scottish Greens or Scottish Liberal Democrats.

These are sweeteners to try and entice opposition parties to give support.

But it was also a challenge to the opposition: Are you going to vote down this budget and risk the financial chaos and the early election that could come with that?

It was particularly a challenge to Scottish Labour, with a reversal to cuts to the winter fuel payment brought in by the UK party and a commitment to end the two-child cap over time.

While John Swinney has made clear his top priority is ending child poverty, he's also setting a bit of an elephant trap for the Scottish Labour party.

The Scottish Conservatives have defended the two-child cap as “necessary” after Finance Secretary Shona Robison pledged to mitigate its impacts in today’s budget.

As we've been reporting, the Tories introduced the policy in 2017. It prevents parents from claiming universal credit or child tax credit for a third child.

Scottish Conservative social security spokeswoman Liz Smith said the "rapidly rising" benefits bill was unsustainable, and argued it was a direct consequence of the SNP's high taxes and "mismanagement" of public finances.

She said: “Social security payments must be fair to people who are struggling and to taxpayers who pick up the bill.

“We believe the two-child cap is necessary and the right approach at this time."

Image source, PA Media

The hospitality sector had been asking the Scottish government for financial help, particularly on business rates.

Paul Waterson from the Scottish Licensed Trade Association tells Radio Scotland's Drivetime: "This Budget was all about rates relief.

"In England they've had rates relief through Westminster at 75% over the last two years, we've never got it."

Waterson explains the vast majority of the SLTA's members - which includes pubs, hoteliers, restaurants and clubs - pay over £51,000 in rates.

So they don't get anything from this Budget, he adds.

"The vast majority of people will get nothing, so there's no help at all for licensed premises over that amount."

He argues there will be a "massive amount of closures, a massive amount of job losses".

What does the Budget mean for Scotland's councils?published at 17:20 Greenwich Mean Time

17:20 GMT

Jamie McIvor
BBC Scotland News Correspondent

Council leaders from across Scotland will discuss how the Budget will affect them at their regular meeting on Friday.

Councils will have the power to raise the council tax by as much they consider appropriate.

But the Scottish government argues that what it calls “record funding” for councils means big rises should not be needed.

Individual councils should learn soon exactly how the budget will affect them.

They will then work out just what this may mean in practice. How much of that money is ring-fenced or tied to particular projects or policy objectives? How much can councils spend as they deem fit?

Council body Cosla – which argued that there should be no limits imposed on council tax rises – is also doing the sums.

Cosla president councillor Shona Morrison said: “Cosla notes the budget announcement today from the cabinet secretary and the commitments contained within the statement. We will spend the coming days analysing the implications for local authorities and the communities we serve.

"We have been engaging in negotiations with fair and flexible funding at the heart of our discussions and we hope to see this reflected in our settlement"

Welfare spending rises while public service cash drops slightlypublished at 17:11 Greenwich Mean Time

17:11 GMT

Douglas Fraser
Scotland business & economy editor

Welfare spending by Holyrood is taking up a rapidly rising share of spending, as powers are devolved and as the Scottish government has chosen to offer more generous benefits.

The Treasury allocates Scotland the amount it would have spent on Scots under rules set at Westminster. Holyrood can then choose how to spend that, and is free to supplement it.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission says spending will next year be £1.33bn more than the Treasury allocates. Only two years ago, it was £481m more than the Treasury allocated.

So welfare spending has gone up from 9.7% of the day-to-day budget at Holyrood to 13.5%.

And because that is money that cannot also be spent on public services, the budget for them is down slightly.

Paying benefits for families with more than two children - reversing the cut made at Westminster as Shona Robison has announced she aims to do from 2026 - the SFC estimates the cost will rise from £150m per year to £200m over the following few years.

Another mitigation of a spending cut at Westminster is partial reversal of the winter fuel payment to older Scots, estimated to cost £69m more next year.

The Poverty Alliance has welcomed the government's proposals - but with some caveats.

It says the promised investment in affordable homes and homelessness prevention is necessary - but more social homes are needed to tackle the housing emergency.

Chief executive Peter Kelly also welcomed winter fuel payment support for pensioners and free bus travel for asylum seekers, saying "We hope this is the start of a move to provide bus passes to more people - starting with those eligible for benefits".

He adds: "But we can do more. There are around 240,000 children in poverty in Scotland. We need to go further and faster if we are going eradicate child poverty.

"That means more immediate support through the Scottish Child Payment and using our powers over tax and investment to build a stronger society for all of us - especially people in poverty."

And on the housing emergency, the Living Rent Campaign says the government's move on affordable housing is only a reverse of past cuts and a "drop in the ocean" to what was needed.

Chair Aditi Jehangir said: "Right now there are nearly a quarter of a million people on waiting lists in Scotland.

"This government needs to deliver more social housing by allocating greater funding for stock buy back and for social and council house building programmes, to ensure more people have a stable, secure, affordable place to live."

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Scotland welcomed the finance secretary's announcement that business rates relief will be extended to most of the hospitality sector.

Scotland policy chair Andrew McRae said he was also pleased to see that the “lifeline” Small Business Bonus Scheme would continue to offer support.

However he criticised the failure to extend rates relief to include small retail and leisure businesses as “a bitter pill to swallow.”

Mr McRae said: “The pressures they are facing are exactly the same as those in England and Wales, where relief has continued to be available since July 2022 – the last time such relief was offered in Scotland.

“As a result, many retailers will face yet more difficult decisions in the months ahead as they look to protect the future of their businesses and employees.”

Douglas Fraser
Scotland business & economy editor

There’s some help for below average earners, with income tax thresholds on the rise.

But more of those on above average earnings will be caught in the frozen thresholds.

Those buying homes find tax thresholds remain in place, which is another form of increasing taxes as prices rise.

These are the same thresholds as in 2015, and there’s a big increase in additional dwelling supplement for those buying a second home or one for investment.

There’s a big rise for arts and culture, after a lot of uncertainty and money withdrawn before being reinstated.

Housing gets a big increase in capital spending, though it returns that budget to the same level as the year before last.

The cost of rising commitments to social security benefits is on course to increase.

Next year it will be £1.3bn more than funds allocated to Holyrood in lieu of the welfare spending that would have come to Scots under Westminster rules.

That’s money that cannot therefore be allocated to public services.

Image source, PA Media

The finance secretary has announced changes to Scotland's income tax bands to mean more of people's earnings will be levied at lower rates.

Yvonne Evans, a tax expert and Senior Lecturer at Dundee University, tells Radio Scotland's Drivetime: "Lower and middle earners are going to benefit slightly from the increase in the thresholds of the basic rate, which is the starting point for 20% and intermediate rate at 21%.

"At best that helps people by about £20, so it's not worth getting over-excited about really."

The higher rate, advanced rate and top rate are all staying the same which brings in "fiscal drag".

Evans explains: "Fiscal drag means more and more people, as their earnings increase by inflation, they trip over into these thresholds."

She also highlights council tax has been unfrozen or capped next year, which is no surprise.

Scrapping the cap - the rabbit out of the hatpublished at 16:20 Greenwich Mean Time

16:20 GMT

Philip Sim
BBC Scotland political correspondent

Probably the biggest announcement in the Budget actually isn’t part of the tax or spending plans for next year.

It was Shona Robison’s 'rabbit out of the hat' moment of announcing that the Scottish government would move to scrap - or offset, or mitigate - the two-child cap.

That’s a UK-wide policy, imposed by the Department of Work and Pensions on welfare payments such as Universal Credit and child tax credits - so it will take some time, and will need some help from the UK government.

It’s not yet clear what the mechanism will be, how it will work, or how much it will cost.

But be in no doubt that this is a big challenge to Labour.

It comes days after an announcement on the winter fuel payment also designed to outflank Anas Sarwar’s party and embarrass the UK administration.

If all goes to plan then the SNP government will start sending out payments to families of the 15,000 children affected in April 2026. One month before the next Holyrood election.

Labour says it's willing to listen to ideas, but points out that there is not a penny in the coming year’s budget to support it.

They will surely need to come up with a more substantial response before that election gets much closer.

Image source, Getty Images

Finance Secretary Shona Robison has told the Scottish Parliament she intends to "develop the systems necessary to effectively scrap the impact of the two-child cap in 2026".

She said the cap, introduced by the Tories in 2017, had caused misery for families in Scotland.

The cap related to benefits payments and prevents parents from claiming universal credit or child tax credit for a third child.

It is thought 26,000 households are affected in Scotland.

Ms Robison said eradicating the cap would lift 15,000 children out of poverty.

The finance secretary said the UK government's Department of Work and Pensions controlled the data on who was affected by the policy but she said that they intended to work with them over the next year to devise a system to "mitigate" the cap.

This is likely to involve the Scottish government making payments to those affected but there is no figure in the Budget for how much this might cost.

Despite the complications, Ms Robison said there was no doubt "the cap will be scrapped".

John Dickie, director of the Child Poverty Action group, welcomed the Scottish government's plan to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

He told BBC's Politics Scotland programme, external that the policy was the single biggest driver of child poverty in the UK.

However he raised concerns that the support will not be available until 2026.

“Families are struggling to wait until 2026 for this kind of support,” he said.

“We really need to see action and investment in our social security support for families in the coming financial year, as well as following through on this if we don’t see the cap scrapped at UK level.”

And he said the CPAG still needed to see the exact details on how the Scottish government would look to achieve its plans.

Image source, Getty Images

In case you missed it, the Scottish government says it will mitigate the "pernicious" two-child cap on benefits north of the border.

Setting out her draft Budget at Holyrood, Finance Secretary Shona Robison said SNP ministers would aim to provide funding to affected families by 2026 and there was no doubt "the cap will be scrapped".

She also announced changes to Scotland's income tax band to mean more of people's earnings will be levied at lower rates.

Robison said this would mean that the majority of people in Scotland would pay less income tax than they would if they lived elsewhere in the UK.

Read more here.

Shona Robison says this is not the case and the Budget will deliver a transformation fund for agriculture and food security.

"Many of these things are things the farming community and their representatives have asked for," she says.

"They wanted the money in capital and they wanted it in a way that could be spent.

"That money would be difficult to spend in one financial year and that's why it will be spent over two financial years, but this is a guarantee to the farmers of Scotland that every penny of that funding will be returned."

Conservative MSP Tim Eagle turns to farming. He says, as an active farmer, the Budget falls short of what NFU Scotland saw as a baseline figure with £46m of uncommitted funds "snatched" in prior budgets not being returned.

Eagle says this is a budget which leaves farmers and fishermen abandoned.

He asks Robison whether its true that the Budget not only fails to deliver for farmers but the whole of rural Scotland.

Douglas Fraser
Scotland business & economy editor

I think the parts that we weren’t hearing.

Finance Secretary Shona Robison didn’t give much comparison over what was happening from this year into next year.

There were a lot of projects and lobbying that got answered, particularly the culture spend.

But the Scottish government is looking at income tax growing more slowly than the rest of the UK which, over time, is creating more and more of a squeeze on this Budget.

We’re looking at a 3.2% cash increase in day-to-day spending - which in real terms is only 0.8%.

So quite a few departments are getting that inflation increase, but not a great deal more to relieve the pressures that a lot of public services are under.

However the welfare spend is getting a big increase through the promise to mitigate the two-child cap.

But it’s a bit of a gamble as the Labour party could eventually get to do the same thing, since many Labour backbenchers have been pressuring Chancellor Rachel Reeves to remove the cap.

Image source, gett

The finance secretary insists she's very keen to continue to have engagement across this parliament.

However she points out the only unallocated resources will be in the ScotWind territory.

She stresses the Scottish government wouldn't want to invest all of the ScotWind money in one financial year.

The finance secretary believes the measures should garner the support necessary to pass.