Public Service Reform: Pre-budget scrutiny 2027-28

Overview

The Public Service Reform Committee is seeking views as part of its pre-budget scrutiny 2027-28.  

The Committee’s pre-budget scrutiny inquiry will consider how the 2027/28 Scottish Budget can promote public service reform, including by:

  • removing barriers to progress 
  • promoting preventative approaches, and  
  • simplifying the delivery of public services. 

Your responses to the following questions will help inform the Committee’s scrutiny and your input is much appreciated. 

About this call for views

The intention of pre-budget scrutiny, which takes place in advance of the publication of the Scottish Budget, is that committees will use pre-budget reports to influence spending proposals still under development by the Scottish Government.   

The Scottish Budget would normally be expected to be published in December, although timings have yet to be confirmed.  

Who we would like to hear from

We welcome responses from a wide range of individuals and organisations, including: 

  • Public sector leaders 
  • Community planning partnerships
  • Trade unions  
  • Academics and think tanks  
  • Representatives from the third sector  
  • Staff who deliver services within or on behalf of the public sector.  

How to contribute 

Please answer the call for views by completing the submission form below.

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. 

Watch our BSL users guide

Questions in this call for views

  1. The Scottish Government aims to deliver on average £0.5 billion in savings through efficiencies per year for the next three years (2026-27 to 2028-29): 
     
    1. To what extent are these savings achievable, and how will they shape public service delivery? 
       
    2. What progress is being made towards achieving these efficiencies? 
       
    3. What are the barriers to achieving greater efficiency and how can these be addressed? 
  2. How should the Scottish Government best present the extent of any realised efficiencies in the annual budget publication, including providing clarity on whether these are expected to be recurring savings? 
     
  3. The Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan aims to achieve an average reduction of the public sector workforce of 0.5% per year over five years.
     
    1. To what extent is this target achievable and how will it shape public service delivery?
       
    2. What progress is being made towards achieving this target? 
  4. What actions can the Scottish Government take to ensure these workforce reductions are delivered in a managed way which best supports effective government and public service delivery?
     
  5. The PSR strategy states that it will protect frontline services. To what extent is there sufficient clarity about how frontline roles are defined and how efficiencies in back-office functions can be delivered in a way that minimises impact on the delivery of public services? 
     
  6. Beyond the financial benefits that the Public Sector Reform (PSR) Strategy aims to achieve, what are the key outcomes that reform should be aiming for? 
     
  7. The PSR Strategy includes 18 different workstreams which aim to remove barriers to reform.
     

    One workstream focuses on “simplification”, recognising that “complexity of processes, structures and reporting requirements is a key barrier to effective and efficient service delivery”. 

    “Prevention” is one of three pillars providing structure to the Strategy.

    1. What should the Scottish Government’s priorities be under its simplification workstream and what level of savings can be achieved through this approach? 
       
    2. What progress has been made to date with preventative budgeting?
       
    3. How should the forthcoming Budget support greater progress towards preventative budgeting across the devolved public sector? Please set out any barriers and how these can be addressed.
       
    4. What changes to the Scottish Government's approach to budget-setting are needed to effectively deliver public service reform? 
  8. The Scottish Government included an upfront Invest to Save Fund of around £30 million in the 2025-26 and 2026-27 Scottish Budgets for reform projects that will deliver ongoing savings and support the delivery of the PSR strategy.  
     
    1. To what extent is the Invest to Save Fund delivering projects that achieve ongoing savings?  
       
    2. How are successful outcomes from this Fund being shared more widely across the public sector? 

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 14 August.

Submit your views

Complete the submission form

Closes 14 Aug 2026

Opened 1 Jul 2026

Contact

Public Service Reform Committee

psr.committee@parliament.scot