Scottish Budget 2023-24: equality and Fairer Scotland statement

National priorities

National Performance Framework

The Scottish Budget directs spend in a way that promotes the 11 outcomes of the National Performance Framework (NPF) and its overall purpose:

"To create a more successful country with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increased wellbeing and, sustainable and inclusive economic growth."

Programme for Government

Every year, the Programme for Government sets out the Scottish Government's aims for the coming year. The budget then allocates money to support these goals.

The 2022-23 Programme for Government focused on protecting people through the cost crisis. Due to inflation, the 2022-23 budget is worth around 10% less in real terms that the previous year.

Plans include:

• setting out the future of Scotland's energy system
• preparing an updated Climate Change Plan
• delivering the first stages of our National Strategy for Economic Transformation
• significant reform to health and social care, with the creation in law of a new National Care Service for Scotland
• improving safety and championing the voice of patients
• progressing major reforms in the justice system
• reforming our education system, improving public health, protecting our environment, and making our economy more sustainable

Human Rights

Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to everyone. There are many rights and freedoms that come under this umbrella including civil and political as well as, economic and social rights. For example, the right to adequate living standards and the best standard of health care. In the portfolio sections below we have set out which human rights are most applicable to the portfolio. This illustrates how the budget content aligns to key human rights.

Human rights should influence the process of setting the budget, alongside the content of the budget. In Annex A we have shown how embedding Human Rights principles of Transparency, Participation and Accountability has informed the budget.