Scottish Budget - provisional outturn 2025-2026: briefing note - 18 June 2026
The overall provisional fiscal outturn for 2025-26 is £55.9 billion against a total fiscal budget of £56.3 billion. The Scottish Government (SG) is not permitted by Treasury to overspend its budget. The remaining underspend of £358 million, carried forward in full in the Scotland Reserve.
Provisional Outturn–HM Treasury Budgets
Overall financial position summary
1. The overall provisional fiscal outturn for 2025-26 is £55.9 billion against a total fiscal budget of £56.3 billion. The Scottish Government (SG) is not permitted by Treasury to overspend its budget. The remaining underspend of £358 million, carried forward in full in the Scotland Reserve, represents only 0.6% of total budget. To note, £150 million of funding is already reflected in our funding assumptions for 2026-27 with the remainder held, and required annually, to mitigate the risk of post year-end movements and audit adjustments. Table 1 below provides an overview of this underspend, split by portfolio.
2. The final figures will be confirmed at final outturn, on completion of the year end audits for all the bodies within the Scottish Budget budgeting boundary.
3. Management of funding across years is necessary. The Scotland Reserve, while it remains a limited tool, is utilised primarily to ensure any underspends from one year are made available to use in the subsequent financial year.
4. An element of our budget allocation from HM Treasury is non-cash, which is used for accounting adjustments, predominantly depreciation. It is not possible to use this ring-fenced non-cash budget to support any day-to-day spending. Non-cash funding does not flow to the Scotland Reserve and is not included in our headline provisional outturn results. For 2025-26 this shows an underspend of £249 million against a budget of just under £4 billion (a large proportion of this is budget for student loan impairments which are simply not required at the same level in Scotland as they are in UK Government).
| Portfolio | Resource | Capital | Financial Transactions | Total (exc Non-Cash) | Non-Cash | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Climate Action and Energy | (14) | (21) | 0 | (35) | 0 | (35) |
| Constitution, External Affairs and Culture | 0 | (4) | (1) | (5) | (2) | (7) |
| Deputy First Minister, Economy and Gaelic | 73 | (45) | 2 | 31 | (2) | 29 |
| Education and Skills | (12) | 2 | 1 | (9) | (74) | (83) |
| Finance and Local Government* | (276) | 31 | (0) | (246) | 7 | (239) |
| Health and Social Care | (7) | (12) | (0) | (19) | (11) | (30) |
| Housing | (3) | (75) | (21) | (98) | 0 | (98) |
| Justice and Home Affairs | (10) | 18 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 12 |
| Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands | (20) | (11) | 0 | (31) | (3) | (34) |
| Social Justice | (19) | 2 | 0 | (17) | 12 | (5) |
| Transport | (24) | (35) | 0 | (59) | (4) | (63) |
| Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service | (3) | (0) | 0 | (3) | (3) | (6) |
| Total Scottish Government | (313) | (151) | (18) | (482) | (78) | (559) |
| Other Bodies within the Scottish Administration | (8) | 3 | 0 | (4) | (1) | (6) |
| Total Scottish Administration | (320) | (147) | (18) | (486) | (79) | (565) |
| Other Bodies funded directly from the Scottish Budget | (2) | 1 | 0 | (1) | (0) | (1) |
| Total Scottish Budget | (322) | (146) | (18) | (487) | (79) | (566) |
| Funding Adjustments** | 10 | 104 | 14 | 129 | (170) | (41) |
| Total | (312) | (42) | (4) | (358) | (249) | (607) |
* Includes contingency set aside in Spring Budget Revision.
** Funding adjustments relate to adjustments made after conclusion of the Spring Budget Revision which are not included in portfolio allocations.
Contact
Email: Corporate.reporting@gov.scot