Scottish Government audited income and expenditure accounts: FOI release

Information requested

Please supply me with Scottish Government Audited Income and Expenditure Accounts for the under-noted tax years, in spreadsheet format, urgently:

• 2016 - 2017
• 2017 - 2018
• 2018 - 2019

Please include detailed breakdowns of exactly where all the money came from, including any brought forward from previous tax years; and exactly where all the expenditure was spent.

I would also like included, your budgets for the same tax years.

Response

1. Please supply me with Scottish Government Audited Income and Expenditure Accounts for the under-noted tax years, in spreadsheet format, urgently:

• 2016 – 2017
• 2017 – 2018
• 2018 – 2019

The Scottish Government and related bodies produce annual accounts which are laid in the Scottish Parliament and published online. The published consolidated accounts provide outturn reports of expenditure of the Scottish Government compared to the budget approved by the Scottish Parliament. The Performance Report section of the accounts also includes a section on how the Scottish Budget is funded.

You can access the accounts for the three years requested at the link below.

• https://www.gov.scot/policies/government-finance/financial-reports-and-accounts/

The Scottish Parliament budgets are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and form the basis on which the Consolidated Accounts are prepared and audited. The accounts cover a financial year i.e. from 1 April to 31 March, compared to the tax year requested which runs from 6 April to 5 April.

Please note that we do not hold audited income and expenditure accounts in spreadsheet format however I have provided links to the information requested in PDF format. The link below is a response to a recent FOI request that covers this subject in more detail.

• https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-19-02227/

In addition to Scottish budgets, the Scottish Government is also required to live within HM Treasury budgetary controls. The Cabinet Secretary reports performance against these budgets to the Scottish Parliament each year. The link above includes a table showing variances against these budgets going back to 2007-08.

2. Please include detailed breakdowns of exactly where all the money came from, including any brought forward from previous tax years;

Scottish Government funding is derived from a number of sources, including tax revenues and the block grant drawn down from HM Treasury in accordance with the allocation through the Barnett formula. Information about the sources of funding can be found in the Scottish Consolidated Fund Account which is published alongside the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts. Other income, such as some European Funding and other receipts are disclosed in the Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts (note 4)

The Scottish Government publishes a Spring Budget Revision each year amending the Scottish Budget and finalising the Government’s spending plans for the financial year. I have included links below to the published documents for the three years requested (Table 1.6, in all cases shows the sources of funding, the revised budget and how the two reconcile).

• 2016-17 - https://www.gov.scot/publications/2016-17-spring-budget-revision-supportingdocument/
• 2017-18 - https://www.gov.scot/publications/2017-18-spring-budget-revision-supportingdocument/pages/1/
• 2018-19 - https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-budget-documents-2018-19-springbudget-revision-budget-scotland-act-year-ending-31-march-2019/pages/1/

With regards to carried forward funds from previous years, the response to a previous FOI request above includes information on cash underspends reported to the Scottish Parliament by the Cabinet Secretary, all of which were carried forward and spent in subsequent years.

3. Exactly where all the expenditure was spent.

The outturn reports in the Consolidated Accounts previously referred and linked to provide a breakdown of all expenditure by portfolio and variance against budget.

4. I would also like included, your budgets for the same tax years.

As noted above, budgets are included in the Consolidated Accounts outturn reports to allow easy comparison of actual spend against budget. For further information on the Scottish Government’s budget and how it is funded please see the Scotland’s finances link below.

• https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-finances-2019-2020-key-facts-figures/

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