Scottish Budget - provisional outturn 2024-2025: briefing note - 24 June 2025
The overall provisional fiscal outturn for 2024-25 is £52.1 billion against a total fiscal budget of £52.7 billion. The Scottish Government (SG) is not permitted by Treasury to overspend its budget. The remaining £557 million (which represents only 1.1% of total budget) has been fully allocated.
Scotland Reserve
18. The Scotland Reserve provides the Scottish Government with a limited facility to manage the smoothing of all types of spending, assist the management of tax volatility and determine the timing of expenditure.
19. The Reserve is split between Fiscal Resource and Fiscal Capital and is, following the Fiscal Framework Review, capped in aggregate at £700 million in 2023-24 prices (using the OBR’s GDP deflator forecast at the time of the Scottish Government draft Budget), and therefore uprated annually. In 2024-25 the Scotland Reserve is capped at £712 million.
20. From 2023-24, annual drawdowns from the reserve are unlimited. There are also no annual limits for payments into the Scotland Reserve provided the overall cap is not breached.
21. The relaxation of the Scotland Reserve restrictions through the fiscal framework review are welcome nonetheless the reserve remains a limited tool and its primary use, by necessity, will be to ensure any underspends from one year are made available to use in the subsequent financial year.
22. All discretionary funding in the Reserve following the conclusion of final outturn processes will be used to support the financial position in 2025-26.
23. Total funding in the Reserve following the conclusion of the provisional outturn process is currently estimated to be £557 million. £501 million of this is projected to be Resource funding.
| Year | Resource | Capital | FT | Fiscal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £million | £million | £million | £million | |
| 2021-22 Opening balance | (405) | (7) | (197) | (608) |
| 2021-22 Drawdowns | 405 | 7 | 197 | 608 |
| 2021-22 Additions | (604) | (81) | (14) | (699) |
| 2021-22 Closing balance | (604) | (81) | (14) | (699) |
| 2022-23 Opening balance | (604) | (81) | (14) | (699) |
| 2022-23 Drawdowns | 604 | 81 | 14 | 699 |
| 2022-23 Additions | (250) | (32) | (44) | (326) |
| 2022-23 Closing balance | (250) | (32) | (44) | (326) |
| 2023-24 Opening balance | (250) | (32) | (44) | (326) |
| 2023-24 Drawdowns | 250 | 32 | 44 | 326 |
| 2023-24 Closing Balance | (265) | (143) | (4) | (411) |
| 2024-25 Opening balance | (265) | (143) | (4) | (411) |
| 2024-25 Drawdowns | 265 | 143 | 4 | 411 |
| 2024-25 Additions | (501) | (31) | (25) | (557) |
| 2024-25 Closing Balance | (501) | (31) | (25) | (557) |
Contact
Email: Corporate.reporting@gov.scot