Inflation has left local authorities in Scotland with their “most difficult budget-setting context seen for many years” and could require millions of pounds of service provision being cut, the...
The news agenda moves fast. Stay on top of the key stories which we share here. A new devolution deal, post-EU development funding, councils supporting their residents through the...
Delivering security for a global summit is no easy task. COP26 was one of the largest events ever staged in the UK, attended by 128 world leaders and 40,000 delegates. Ensuring it happened safely was...
Scottish ministers have overstated the level of funding in the 2023-24 draft budget, after falling to account for top-ups in this year’s budget, economists have claimed.
The Scottish Government has outlined plans to increase taxes on high earners and provide more funding to local authorities next year to help manage pressures stemming from the cost-of-living crisis.
The Scottish Government should be given the resources and powers to dictate how levelling up and post-Brexit development funding is allocated, a senior minister has said.
More than half of all universal credit payments to families with children in Scotland have money deducted by the Department of Work and Pensions, including because of debt owed to public bodies,...
Reforming local taxation to include surcharges on out-of-town businesses could help to arrest decades of decline in Scottish town centres, MSPs have said.
Scottish health services will remain free at the point of need despite several senior officials discussing making richer patients pay for treatment, the health secretary has insisted.
The Scottish Government must close the “major implementation gap” between policy ambitions and delivery to help ensure financial stability, the national watchdog has said.
The impact of inflation and the fallout from the UK government’s “calamitous” mini-budget mean Scottish ministers have had to double budget cuts this year.
Plans to centralise care in Scotland into a national body could cost “significantly” more than current forecasts, and the devolved government has not yet assessed the full cost of the transition, the...
Police Scotland would need to make radical service cuts that could include the removal of the 101 phone line without additional funding, a senior office has warned.
The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has reached an agreement with local government unions, avoiding the resumption of strike action but facing criticism for “unnecessary” delays.
The Scottish Government would rejoin the European Union and earmark up to £20bn in green infrastructure spending if an independence vote was successful.
“Power grab” proposals to centralise social care services in Scotland could see thousands of staff moved to a national body, and the plans face searing criticism from council leaders and unions.
The battle between Scotland’s police officers and their employers has ended with a 5% deal – bringing them into line with other public sector pay deals.
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.
