Economy, Tourism and Energy Committee: Call for Views on Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2027/28
Overview
The Scottish Government will publish its draft 2027/28 Budget proposals on 3 December 2026.
Every year, before the Scottish Budget is announced, committees produce pre-Budget reports or letters making recommendations to the Scottish Government aiming to influence its spending plans for the year ahead.
As part of its pre-Budget scrutiny, the Scottish Parliament’s Economy, Tourism and Energy Committee will consider the longer-term implications for the Scottish economy from the proposed resource and capital funding allocations over the whole of this session Parliament, from Financial Year (FY) 2027/28 to 2030/31, as set out in the recent Scottish Spending Review 2026.
More details on Scotland’s economy can be found in the following recent briefings from the Scottish Parliament’s Information Centre (SPICe):
Focus of this call for views
The Committee is interested in the views of all interested stakeholders on the Scottish Government’s spending priorities for the economy, tourism sector and energy sector.
Your views will help inform our questioning of the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism and Transport and the Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Energy following the publication of the Scottish Government’s draft budget proposals in December 2026. They will also help inform how the Committee approaches its budget scrutiny over the next five years of the current session of Parliament.
Current spending
The Scottish Government’s economy budget primarily funds the enterprise agencies, the Scottish National Investment Bank, Scottish Government investment in City Region and Growth Deals, digital connectivity, employability services, and support for Ferguson Marine shipyard.
Its tourism budget funds VisitScotland, some tourism related infrastructure and the management of major upcoming events, such as the 2027 Tour de France Grand Depart (starting in Edinburgh) and UEFA EURO 2028 football tournament (being co-hosted across Scotland, England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland).
Its energy budget primarily funds Scottish Government investment in offshore wind development, the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme, the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit, and support for industry to decarbonise.
The Scottish Government has set out the level of budget spending on economy, tourism and energy sectors in the current Scottish Budget for the Financial Year 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027.
Key budget terms
Resource
Covers the day-to-day costs of delivering public services, as well as social security payments. This includes staff pay (which accounts for over half the total resource budget), procurement of goods and services (eg. medicines, social care services, IT support), energy costs and other routine operating costs.
Capital
Spending that generates or improves assets to provide benefits over many years. This includes expenditure on infrastructure, buildings, housing, transport projects, equipment and major IT systems.
Non-cash
Covers accounting costs that do not involve cash spending in the current year. Examples include depreciation of assets, provisions for future liabilities and accounting adjustments related to student loans. Non-cash budgets affect the Scottish Government's accounts but do not provide spendable funding for services or projects.
SPICe has a useful glossary of public finance terms which helps explain other relevant budgeting terms. You may wish to refer to this for information.
| Resource (£ million) | Capital (including net Financial Transactions) (£ million) | Non-cash (£ million) | Total (£ million) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economy | ||||
| Scottish Enterprise | 134.0 | 89.5 | 13.5 | 237.1 |
| Highlands and Islands Enterprise | 28.0 | 25.2 | 3.0 | 56.3 |
| South of Scotland Enterprise | 14.4 | 17.1 | 0.7 | 32.2 |
| Other enterprise trade and investment | 71.5 | 0.7 | 0 | 72.2 |
| Scottish National Investment Bank | 0 | 190.0 | 0.4 | 190.4 |
| Cities investment and strategy | 21.2 | 203.3 | 0 | 224.5 |
| Regeneration | 12.3 | 28.0 | 0 | 40.3 |
| Digital | 40.6 | 92.4 | 5.4 | 138.4 |
| Employability | 104.6 | 0 | 0 | 104.6 |
| Ferguson Marine | 7.8 | 16.1 | 0 | 23.9 |
| Economic and scientific advice | 17.4 | 0 | 0 | 17.4 |
| Total | 451.8 | 662.3 | 23.0 | 1,137.3 |
| Resource (£ million) | Capital (including net Financial Transactions) (£ million) | Non-cash (£ million) | Total (£ million) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tourism | ||||
| VisitScotland | 40.0 | 2.3 | 3.0 | 45.2 |
| Tourism special projects | 0 | 7.0 | 0 | 7.0 |
| Tourism major events | 9.6 | 0 | 0 | 9.6 |
| Total | 49.6 | 9.3 | 3.0 | 61.8 |
| Resource (£ million) | Capital (including net Financial Transactions) (£ million) | Non-cash (£ million) | Total (£ million) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | ||||
| Offshore wind | 17.2 | 93.0 | 0 | 110.2 |
| Energy transitions | 19.1 | 20.6 | 0 | 39.7 |
| CARES recovery | 3.5 | 5.0 | 0 | 8.5 |
| Total | 39.8 | 118.6 | 0 | 158.4 |
Read the Scottish Budget 2026-27, Level 4 data tables
Future spending
In January 2026, the Scottish Government published the outcomes from the Scottish Spending Review 2026. This sets out the plans for public spending in Scotland up to FY 2029/30 for resource spending, and FY 2030/31 for capital spending.
The spending review suggests a real terms decrease in funding for the economy, tourism and energy sectors for each of the next two financial years. More information on the Scottish Spending Review 2026 can be found in the SPICe briefing.
How to contribute
Please answer the call for views by completing the submission form below.
You don’t have to answer all the questions. If you would prefer to send in a statement which does not cover any of the questions, please get in touch with the Committee at economy.committee@parliament.scot.
We welcome written views in English, Gaelic, Scots or any other language.
You can also give your views to the Committee in a BSL video. If you send a video, we will arrange for a translation and pay for this. You can send a video through a file transfer service such as WeTransfer, or upload to YouTube and share it as a private link with us by email.
Questions in this call for views
- What are your views on what the spending priorities should be in the Scottish budget 2027/28 in terms of the economy, tourism and energy sectors?
- What are your views on the impact or outcomes spending on economy, tourism and energy is delivering?
- What are your views on the overall spending profile set out in the Scottish Spending Review which indicates that public spending on the economy, tourism and energy sectors will see a real terms decrease in funding over the coming financial years?
- Any other comments you wish to make on budget spending on the economy tourism and energy sectors?
Analysis
The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) will prepare a summary and analysis of responses.
If we receive a very high volume of submissions, this may need to be prepared based on a sample of submissions.
Confidentiality and publication of responses
Please let us know if you wish your response to remain confidential. You can also ask for your submission to be anonymised.
We aim to publish all the submissions we receive. The only exceptions are where submissions are made on a “confidential” or “not for publication” basis.
If we receive a very high volume of submissions, we may not have the resources to process and publish them all.
The call for views closes on Friday 23 October.
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