• Finance Secretary Kate Forbes says she has delivered a budget for "climate, recovery and equality"
• Income tax rates will remain unchanged and and the threshold for the starter and basic rates will rise in line with inflation.
• Thresholds for the higher and top rates are frozen - meaning, as salaries rise, more people may be find themselves in the higher tax bands.
• The council tax freeze will end next year, with councils given full flexibility to raise rates for the first time since the SNP came to power.
• Forecasts from the Scottish Fiscal Commission predict the economy will be back at pre-Covid levels by next summer but there is uncertainty over future tax revenue.
• There is funding to deliver a £10.50 minimum wage for social care workers - but Labour says it's a "meagre" increase that does not go far enough to address staffing problems
• Business rates relief during the pandemic will be phased out in the first three months of the new tax year, avoiding a "cliff edge", but the Tories says there should be more generous business rate relief.
• The budget includes a record £18bn spending on health and social care, and Ms Forbes confirmed the doubling of the Scottish Child Payment to £20 from April, already announced by Nicola Sturgeon.
• There is also £2bn allocated to the decarbonisation of housing, transport and industry.

That's it for our live page coverage of the Scottish budget. Thanks for joining us.

How does the budget impact on the ability to open new railway stations and electrify lines?published at 17:12 Greenwich Mean Time 9 December 2021

17:12 GMT 9 December 2021

Douglas Fraser
Scotland business & economy editor

The questioner is particularly keen to know how it would affect plans for East Kilbride and the planned extension of the line to Levenmouth in Fife.

This is what it says in the budget document:

"The budget provides almost £1.4bn to maintain, improve and decarbonise Scotland’s rail network, including £247m on major project enhancements which includes decarbonisation of the Barrhead corridor, East Kilbride corridor, Fife and Borders electrification."

So no mention of a line extension for Levenmouth. The planning process is just one of the reasons that may have to wait for a future year’s budget.

Douglas Fraser
Scotland business & economy editor

There is good news in the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) report, but also a tight squeeze on expectations of increased spending.

The good news is of 10.4% forecast Scottish economic growth for 2021-22. That will take the economy back to the pre-pandemic level of output by the second quarter of next year - two years earlier than forecast in January.

Unemployment will go up, according to the forecast, but to a much lower peak than previously expected, of 4.9%.

However, the prospects for the total budget at Holyrood are very tight. In real terms, the budget falls in real terms, by 1% per year, then rising by the time of the next Holyrood election by only 1%.

Given the expectations set in the election campaign last May, and the pressures to find more funds for health and social care, that is an extremely tough outlook.

It gets much tougher when the promises on welfare are taken into account. The SFC says commitments are rising by £750m per year, half of that to meet the cost of the higher Scottish Child Payment.

So while commitments and expectations rise steeply, income tax revenue goes down and the total budget effectively stands still.

And this is what is set aside for fighting climate change:

• £2bn of low-carbon capital investment in infrastructure announced for decarbonising homes, buildings, transport and industry
• £20m goes to the 10-year Just Transition Fund, to help the north east and Moray transition from carbon-based industries
• £336m for energy efficiency and renewable heating
• £150m investment in walking, wheeling and cycling
• £60m for large-scale decarbonisation projects
• £1.4bn to be spent to "maintain, improve and decarbonise"
• Scotland's rail network Woodland creation gets £69.5m

This is what the budget promised for the economy:

• £205m for the Scottish National Investment Bank - to help it support Scotland’s transition to net zero, build communities and promote equality and innovation.
• £51m for rural services and islands, including activities linked to the National Islands Plan and introducing a new Islands Bond Fund
• £225m to Skills Development Scotland to support national training interventions
• £2bn for Scotland’s universities and colleges
• £370m for enterprise agencies and nearly £50m to VisitScotland

Closing the attainment gap and lifting people out of poverty was another theme.

Here is what the Scottish government has funded for equality:

The key anti-poverty measure is the doubling of the Scottish Child Payment to £20 a week, from April 2022.

The minimum wage will rise to £10.50 an hour for social care staff.

Public sector workers on low pay will get inflationary increases of at least £775 for those earning less than £25,000, £700 for people on £25,000 to £40,000, and £500 to those earning above £40,000.

The council tax freeze that has been in place since 2007 will end next year.

Ms Forbes also announced:

• £200m to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap
• £4bn across social security and welfare
• £110m to fund free bus travel for young people from January
• £72m to expand free school lunches for all
• P1-5 pupils £544m for free funded early learning and childcare
• £831m for affordable housing

Kate Forbes has set out her budget for 2022-23.

She promised a Scottish Budget "for climate, recovery and equality".

Here's what she offered for business:

• Rates relief for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors will continue at 50% for the first three months of 2022-23
• Non-domestic rates will be 49.8p in the pound, "delivering a below inflation uplift for the fourth year in a row".
• Small businesses on Scottish high streets, will continue to pay no rates for all of next year

Income tax revenue is looking weakpublished at 16:49 Greenwich Mean Time 9 December 2021

16:49 GMT 9 December 2021

Douglas Fraser
Scotland business & economy editor

There are big commitments in Kate Forbes' budget, stemming from the election campaign and from the partnership with Green MSPs.

But at least as significant are the numbers published by the Scottish Fiscal Commission. The independent body provides the forecasts for economic growth and tax revenue, on which Ms Forbes makes her calculations.

Income tax revenue is looking weak. Higher tax rates in Scotland ought to mean higher tax revenue. But because the tax base is rising at a slower rate than the rest of the UK, the block grant from Westminster is adjusted to take account of that.

Next year, the SFC forecasts a net gap of £190m. There’s a tiny surplus forecast for the year after and then some big net gaps again, rising to £417m in 2026-27.

This is the risk and the opportunity facing the Scottish government since it took control of most aspects of income tax.

If the income tax base grows faster, the Scottish government gets the benefit of higher tax receipts than it would otherwise have had. If that base grows more slowly, then MSPs have less money than the Treasury would have given them without fiscal devolution.

As things now look to the Fiscal Commission, there will be a lot less money available.

Are public sector workers getting a pay rise?published at 16:44 Greenwich Mean Time 9 December 2021

16:44 GMT 9 December 2021

Question from Jade

Yes - and it's the lowest-paid public sector staff who should see the biggest difference in their wage slips.

Kate Forbes outlined plans to guarantee at least an additional £775 for people who earn up to £25,000.

Those earning between £25,000 and £40,000 will get an extra £700, and an additional £500 will go to those earning more than £40,000.

The finance secretary said she recognised the challenges of inflation and rising living costs, and the "huge effort" the public sector has made in responding to the pandemic.

She also announced a minimum wage of £10.50 for all bodies covered by the government's public sector pay policy, including social care workers.

Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton asks about the "oversight" of 100,000 sufferers of Long Covid in the budget plans.

Ms Forbes says that a £10m support fund and a care plan has been published and says Long Covid will be covered in the NHS funding announcement.

She says she has allocated "every penny" in the budget.

The finance secretary responds by accusing Labour of "parroting the Tory line".

She says focusing on the increased grant from Westminster fails to recognise that the Scottish government must "absorb all the Covid costs" within its budget

Ms Forbes says Labour's demands for extra spending would have cost an extra £3bn - which, if services were not to be cut, would require big tax rises.

She defends the planned pay rate of £10.50 an hour for carers - which is "significantly higher" than the national living wage - and higher than the rate called for by UK Labour for carers in England.

Daniel Johnson, for Scottish Labour, says the budget does not contain the "bold action" needed to move beyond the Covid crisis.

The child payment should be increased to £40 by April 2023, he argues.

He also says care workers deserve a "fair increase" to £15 an hour, not the "meagre, barely 50p increase" that is planned, saying this is vital to boost recruitment.

Mr Johnson says the phased return of business rates will not prevent many businesses going to the wall - and just resets the "cliff edge" into the summer.

Schools should be fitted with ventilation systems to make them safer and ensure schooling can continue despite Covid uncertainties, he adds.

Mr Johnson says the increase in the block grant from Westminster should have allowed the Scottish government to go much further.

Image source, Getty Images

The Scottish government has now published the full budget document, external - which says that local authorities are to be given full flexibility over council tax rates for the first time since the SNP came to power in 2007.

The document says that councils will have "complete flexibility to set the Council Tax rate that is appropriate for their local authority area".

And it says it expects councils to take "full account of local needs and of the impacts on household budgets of the decisions they make".

Ms Forbes hits back at the Tory MSP, saying that if the Scottish Conservatives want to deliver all the things they have set out, they should tell the parliament what they will cut and where the funding will come from.

She says that if health and social care funding, business help and Covid costs have to be absorbed by the Scottish Budget, then there have to be "stark choices".

Liz Smith responds for the Scottish Conservatives.

She is "astonished" Kate Forbes has not acknowledged "record block grant funding" from Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

While welcoming the doubling of the child payment, she says her party wanted to see support for public services and for economic recovery from Covid.

Ms Smith would have liked to see 75% business rate relief and asked why there was no commitment to structural reforms and investment in skills in the digital infrastructure.

On the block grant, Ms Forbes says next year's budget is indeed a reduction on this year's budget because the Tories "have wished Covid away".

She says that there is a far bigger cushion on rates for business in Scotland than there is in England.

Where does the Scottish government spend its money?published at 16:19 Greenwich Mean Time 9 December 2021

16:19 GMT 9 December 2021

Philip Sim
BBC Scotland political correspondent

Most of the cash goes on health, which usually accounts for more than 40% of the overall spend.

Nicola Sturgeon has promised to increase investment by 20% over the parliamentary term - and a "significant down payment on that commitment" was promised.

Social care also sucks up a fair chunk of the budget, even before the new National Care Service is set up.

And the doubling of the Scottish Child Payment is forecast to cost £90m next year, then more than £300m per year when fully rolled out.

Local government takes about a quarter of the cash while delivering many core services from schools to bin collections.

Education, transport and justice also take up hefty chunks of spending.

Image source, Getty Images

Public sector workers on low pay are to get help in the next financial year.

The Scottish government will guarantee inflationary increases of at least £775 for those earning less than £25,000, £700 for people on £25,000 to £40,000, and £500 to those earning above £40,000.

Social care workers will see their hourly rate rise from a minimum of £10.02 per hour to £10.50 per hour across all bodies covered by the pay policy.

There will also be targeted support for lowest-paid staff across the public sector.

Ms Forbes concludes her statement by returning to her opening theme - that it is a budget of choices.

She says it has delivered on promises on health, social care, helping low income families as well as supporting businesses and workers - but it is also a budget for a net zero future.

Image source, Getty Images

Ms Forbes says the hosting of COP26 showcased what was already being done in Scotland on climate change.

She says the budget sets out almost £2bn of low-carbon capital investment in infrastructure - decarbonising homes, buildings, transport and industry.

This includes the first £20m of the 10-year Just Transition Fund, to help the north east and Moray transition from carbon based industries

• A total of £336m has been allocated for energy efficiency and renewable heating
• Walking, wheeling and cycling will be promoted with £150m investment
• Large-scale decarbonisation projects have been allocated £60m and there will be £43m spent on promoting a circular economy
• £1.4bn will be spent to "maintain, improve and decarbonise" Scotland's rail network
• Woodland creation gets £69.5m, increasing the target by 15,000 hectares, while £53m will be spent restoring the natural environment.