The additional funding that came alongside Stormont’s return might not be enough to deliver financial stability in Northern Ireland, the nation’s fiscal watchdog has warned.
Higher-than-expected public sector pay and meeting spending commitments will create a £1.5bn gap in Scotland’s 2024-25 budget, the Fraser of Allander Institute has warned.
Record oil and gas income in Scotland helped to close the gap between money raised and spent on public services last year, the latest Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland report said.
Rising care demands and tightening budgets risk reducing the quality of Welsh care and ministers must have honest conversations over the future of healthcare, a service leader has said.
Northern Ireland’s civil servants have warned that “sub-optimal” budgets will lead to further cuts that could constrain council services and worsen court delays.
Plans to sharply lower the level of child poverty in Scotland will fail without significant investment from the Scottish government, experts have warned.
The absence of a working Northern Ireland Executive is putting critical government services at risk and jeopardising public sector transformation, civil servants have warned.
Big overspends this year will lead to sharp real-terms cuts for Northern Irish departments next year, the devolved nation’s financial forecaster has warned.
The Scottish Government must close the “major implementation gap” between policy ambitions and delivery to help ensure financial stability, the national watchdog has said.
Scottish ministers have been urged to reprioritise funding to avoid the need for some services to make “disproportionate” cuts, as delegates prepare to meet at Public Finance Live Scotland.
Pressures stemming from the cost-of-living crisis and hitting future targets on net zero have been tipped to be key talking points at Public Finance Scotland this week.
Scottish ministers have tabled around £500m of cuts to planned revenue and capital spending due to “enormous strains” on the devolved administration’s 2022-23 budget.
The Scottish Government deficit fell at a faster rate than the rest of the UK last year, fuelled by a rise in oil revenues, according to the latest Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland report.
Scotland is set to prioritise spending on health, education and climate change over the next four years, leaving other areas such as local government facing cuts, according to experts.
The Northern Irish government could be given responsibility for setting and collecting income tax by 2027, matching agreements in Scotland and Wales, if there is political will to do so, a report has...
The UK government’s lack of engagement with devolved administrations over the £2.6bn fund aimed at replacing regional European Union funding has strained relationships across the union,...
Tight funding settlements will leave Welsh authorities with difficult decisions on which services to prioritise, as the nation recovers from Covid-19, according to its spending watchdog.
The Scottish government has unveiled proposals for council tax and business rate reforms, including a realignment of rate bands, in a consultation on a new framework for tax policy.
Covid-19 support measures and the related economic slowdown saw the Scottish government's budget deficit spike to 22.4% of GDP last year, according to latest statistics.
The government has guaranteed £3.7bn of additional funding for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to help the devolved administrations plan their response to Covid-19 in the months ahead.
