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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee 03 February 2026 [Draft]

03 Feb 2026 · S6 · Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee

Item of business

Budget Scrutiny 2026-27

Robison, Shona SNP Dundee City East Watch on SPTV

Good morning. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today.The budget and the spending review reflect our priorities and values as a Government. I am very proud of the choices that we have made, which have fairness at their heart, to ensure that every pound of public money spent delivers the greatest possible benefit for the people of Scotland. The budget—which is, of course, set against a backdrop of constrained resources and a rising demand for public services—will invest almost £68 billion to secure a fair, healthy, safe, prosperous and green society for the Scottish people.As we navigate that challenging economic and fiscal environment, we also have a duty to ensure that our decisions advance equality and protect the most vulnerable. Our ambition is to ensure that every policy decision improves lives for those who need it most across Scotland. On 19 January, we published our first strategic integrated impact assessment of the likely impacts of the decisions taken in the budget, the spending review and the infrastructure delivery pipeline on people in Scotland. The new approach brings all impact assessments together in a single process and publication to provide a more holistic and transparent view of fiscal decisions. That new approach has been developed in collaboration with international experts and key stakeholders in Scotland, such as the equality and human rights budget advisory group and the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls.I am pleased that the Scottish Parliament information centre has acknowledged that the new approach has brought “significant improvements”, including a more accessible document, better use of data, stronger links between our aims and our spending, and open recognition of unmet targets. The document does more than any before to address past concerns. Our analysis shows that the Scottish budget redistributes from high-income households to those further down the income distribution scale, through the tax and social security systems and through the delivery of public services. Overall, the decisions taken in the budget, the spending review and the infrastructure delivery pipeline are expected to have a positive or neutral impact across the five statutory duties considered.This year’s publication also improves budget transparency. For the first time, we show the impacts of spending decisions, as well as the implications of constrained or reduced resources, for disadvantaged groups, including the trade-offs involved and the mitigations considered. The report also presents new and emerging findings from enhanced distributional analysis and pilot activity on budget tagging and intersectional analysis. That evidence was actively used throughout all stages of the process to inform decision making, including—for the third year running—in a cross-ministerial pre-budget workshop. I am grateful to the Minister for Equalities for her continued support and challenge in those important meetings. We intend to evaluate the new approach and will publish the results later this year.To help today’s session to run smoothly, I note that there will be a hard stop at 11.30 am, when we will join the Cabinet takeover with disabled people, which is an important engagement that reflects Scotland’s leadership in placing lived experience at the heart of decision making. We both look forward to joining that event.

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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee 03 February 2026 [Draft]

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