This report analyses the Scottish Government’s Budget for 2025–26, with chapters on tax strategy, school spending, public ...

Higher defence spending will be offset in the short term by lower spending on overseas aid ...

Rory is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Western Ontario and a Research Associate at IFS. He was previously a PhD Scholar at the IFS. His fields of interest are Public ...

How have public sector pay and employment changed in Scotland in recent years and what are the implications of those changes?

Funding and spending growth are set to slow. Without a top-up, health spending will be flat in 2025–26 and tricky trade-offs ...

Scotland’s schools are relatively well funded. Falling pupil rolls and workforce planning represent both challenges and ...

Today, the Office for National Statistics published new figures on government revenues, spending and borrowing.

By 2040, the number of pupils in Scotland is projected to be 90,000 lower than in 2024. Policymakers face a major choice over ...

We borrowed and spent more than other countries to respond to the pandemic and the sharp rise in energy prices two years ...

The OBR forecast will underpin the Chancellor’s decisions at the next Spring Forecast. As the OBR comes up with its forecast, ...

Council tax in Scotland – as in England – is out of date, regressive and distortionary. How should it be reformed, and what would the effects be?

After £1.5 billion of in-year top-ups in the current financial year, 2024–25, the plans set out for day-to-day health and social care spending in the Scottish Budget for the coming year, 2025–26, now ...