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.
Fiscal Framework
24. The Scottish Government must operate within the tight confines of the Fiscal Framework agreement which require us to balance our budget on an annual basis.
25. As we cannot overspend we must achieve an underspend each year which can be carried forward to the next financial year through the Scotland Reserve. However, there are limits on the amounts that can be deposited within the Scotland Reserve which is capped at £712 million in 2024-25. This equates to just over 1% of our total discretionary budget.
26. The fiscal framework limits the tools we have available to achieve balance. Our borrowing powers are restricted. We are unable to borrow to fund additional resource expenditure and are only able to borrow against forecast errors. The annual limit for resource borrowing in 2024-25 was £610 million with a total limit of £1.779 billion.
27. We can borrow to supplement the capital budget however there remains tight limits on the amounts we can borrow. Our capital borrowing limit in 2024-25 is £458 million, with a total limit of £3.05 billion.
Contact
Email: Corporate.reporting@gov.scot