£2.6bn savings to be reinvested in public services

The Scottish government has published its seventh Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), which provides Scotland’s funding outlook from 2025-26 to 2029-30. Its actions include a Scottish Spending Review that will set a savings target of between £300 and £700 million a year for the next five years, improving efficiency and productivity while reforming public services, aiming to save up to £1.5 billion over five years, and reducing the public sector workforce by an average of 0.5 per cent every year until 2030, with savings growing from £100 million to £700 million each year.

The Scottish government, alongside saving money, aim to reinvest the £2.6 billion savings by reforming public services by prioritising those with the greatest needs, protecting frontline workers during public sector job cuts, and investing in preventative measures to reduce demand on services such as health, social care and justice.

Finance secretary Shona Robison said: “With the world facing profound economic uncertainty this Medium Term Financial Strategy is being published in deeply challenging circumstances. Those challenges have been exacerbated by the actions of the UK government, whose decisions continue to have serious consequences for the delivery of our public services.

“Managing the impact of Westminster austerity is all too familiar. In spite of this we continue to invest in the people of Scotland, supporting a better paid public sector, delivering high-quality public services and providing welfare support that is not available in other parts of the UK. And we have done this while delivering a balanced budget every single year.”