Scottish Government operating costs to increase 11.5%

Last week’s Scottish Government budget signalled a '“break with the status quo”, with significant increases in spending on National Performance Framework priorities that are set to continue post-Covid. At the same time, outside of the policy limelight the budget signalled a significant increase in the cost of running the devolved administration.

According to Annexe F, the operating costs of Government are set to rise from £541.9 million to £604.1 million. A significant driver of increases in operating costs are related to increases in the Scottish Government workforce, together with associated support for critical systems and infrastructure.

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Beyond the budget footnotes, the Scottish Government signalled its priorities with significant investment in Scotland’s digital infrastructure, local government and health.

In the year ahead there will be £98.2 million of capital investment in digital connectivity, including continued funding for Scotland’s Reaching 100% (R100) programme, to ensure that all premises in Scotland can access super fast broadband.

As part of the devolved administration’s work to support digital inclusion, the Connecting Scotland programme providing families with a device, 24 months' unlimited data as well as technical support to get online safely and securely, will continue. It will bring the total number of digitally excluded households we have helped to get confidently online up to 55,000 by the end of 2021, backed by total investment of £45.6 million.

Other significant increases included £11.6 billion for local government - a £335.6 million increase in core revenue funding.

The Scottish Budget is underpinned by Scotland's National Performance Framework. This sets out 11 national outcomes that describe the kind of Scotland that government policy is intended to create.

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