How do the Scottish Government's capital spending plans affect you?

Overview

Every year the Scottish Parliament looks at the Scottish Government’s spending plans and how it raises taxes. 

Ahead of the next Budget, the Equalities, Civil Justice and Human Rights Committee has chosen to look at:

• transparency in Scottish Government capital funding decision-making
• the impact of capital spending on the wellbeing and equality of citizens 

Why are we running a survey? 

We would like to hear people's views on how decisions about capital spending affect them. Hearing from people across Scotland helps us to get a better understanding of which decisions made by the Scottish Government are, and are not, working.  

What is capital spending?

When people talk about budgets, they often use words like “resource” and “capital”.  

• revenue or resource - funding that is to be used for day-to-day spending like salaries or fuel bills. 
• capital - spending on things that will endure, like a building, or maintaining roads or paths.  

Different types of capital spending include:

• building or developing and maintaining public buildings like schools, libraries, hospitals, prisons
• building or developing and maintaining public spaces like town centres, green spaces and play parks
• building or developing and maintaining infrastructure like roads, cycleways and public transport facilities and vehicles
• refurbishing buildings and retrofitting them to make them more environmentally efficient or accessible to people with disabilities

The amount of capital funding the Scottish Government has depends on how much is allocated to it from the UK Government. However, the Scottish Government can also fund capital investment using its revenue budget and, within limits, can borrow to fund capital spending.

More information about recent changes in capital spending is available from the Scottish Parliament Research Centre (SPICe).

What this survey will ask

This survey will ask you three multiple choice questions about yourself and whether you have shared your views before. 

It will then ask you five questions, which give you space to answer in as much or as little detail as you like. The last question will also ask you to share your priorities. 

There are also some multiple-choice questions at the end that help us to understand more about who has answered our survey. 

It should take around five to 10 minutes to complete this survey. 

We welcome written views in English, Gaelic, Scots or any other language. 

This survey closes on Monday 6 May 2024.