Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement 2022-2023

The Scottish Budget 2022-23

This budget is for the 2022-23 financial year, which runs from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

After it is published by the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament examine it and then vote on whether it should be changed, or created as the government have proposed.

The Scottish Budget in 2022-23 is £56.4 billion.

As the graph below shows, Health and Social Care and Social Justice, Housing and Local Government (which includes social security payments) are the two biggest areas of spend this year. Each of these make up just under a third of the total Scottish Budget. For more information about this year's key changes in spend and how these impact on equality, see Chapter 1 of the Scottish Budget 2022-23.

A lot of the budget goes straight to a range of public bodies. They then decide how to use this funding, including thinking about the impact on equality. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the Scottish Parliament and Audit Scotland have separate budget lines in the Scottish Budget. These are shown in the graph above. Most public bodies are required to produce a mainstreaming report to show how they use their funding to tackle inequality. For example, more information about how funding for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service impacts on equality can be found on their website.

Where does the money in the Scottish Budget come from?

For public services that the Scottish Government controls, it receives funding linked to a population share of related UK Government spending. The Scottish Budget also includes money collected from taxes that Scottish Government controls, as well as money that the Scottish Government borrows.

2022 Resource Spending Review

The Scottish Budget is agreed on each year. However, the Scottish Government knows that many organisations find it helpful to know what their funding will be for a longer period of time, so that they can plan for delivery and reform. We published a Capital Spending Review in February 2021 and in 2022 we will complete a Resource Spending Review to provide multi-year spending plans for budget areas. Resource spending is money that is spent on administration and the day-to-day delivery of services and programmes, such as school meals, concessionary bus passes and most public sector staff salaries.

We agreed with the Scottish Parliament that a Resource Spending Review Framework would be published so that people can have their say on the priorities and principles for this review. The framework includes an equality assessment and asks for views on this (see question 5).