Briefing paper: Multi-year budgeting in Scotland
This paper from the David Hume Institute’s proposes a way forward for the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Government and Audit Scotland to make multi-year budgeting the established norm in Scotland.
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.
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.
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.
