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Scottish ministers must draw up detailed plans to close a looming £5 billion black hole, the spending watchdog has said. Stephen Boyle, the Auditor General for Scotland, said the Scottish Government must address the “stark” forecast gap between its spending plans and funding. Critics accused the SNP of pursuing a “completely unsustainable” spending programme. In his audit of the Government’s consolidated accounts, Mr Boyle stressed the need for “real change to move the Scottish public sector to a more sustainable position”. Read The Steamie - our dedicated politics newsletter Elsewhere, he said the Government recorded a £1bn underspend in 2024/25. This was supported by more than £2bn of additional funding from the UK government, meaning a plan to use £460 million of offshore wind leasing revenues was not needed. Mr Boyle said significant pressures remain in achieving financial balance in 2025/26, and many of the necessary savings identified and delivered so far are non-recurring. The Government’s latest medium-term financial strategy projects a combined resource and capital funding gap of £4.7bn by 2029/30. This is due to policy choices and higher workforce costs. However, its plan to make savings over the next five years lacks detail on how it will be delivered, the Auditor General said. His report said the Government “cannot clearly demonstrate that public spending is delivering the intended outcomes”. Scottish Labour finance spokesperson Michael Marra said “This damning report lays bare the scale of SNP financial mismanagement and the chaos looming on their watch. “The UK Labour government decisively ended austerity and provided a record funding settlement for Scotland, but Scots aren’t feeling the benefit of this money. The SNP has left £1bn unspent while frontline services struggle, and another £1bn disappeared straight into its budget black hole. “The truth is the SNP cannot be trusted with your money and we cannot afford a third decade of this financial mismanagement.” Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Craig Hoy said: “This is yet another damning verdict from Audit Scotland on the SNP’s lack of a plan to address the ballooning spending gap on their watch. “John Swinney is still pursuing a completely unsustainable spending programme that the country simply cannot afford in the coming years. Even worse, the report points out the SNP Government are not even able to assess whether their policies are delivering for Scots. “This report needs to be a wake-up call for the SNP to finally ditch their reckless policies, which are damaging Scotland’s economic growth and undermining our public services. They should start by giving hard-pressed Scots a much-needed tax cut and finally end their wasteful spending and hostile attitude towards business.” Liberal Democrat MSP Willie Rennie said the SNP had “no serious plan for our public services”. He said: “Instead, they have put them on the line by making one expensive blunder after another, from their disastrous bungling of the ferries to selling off the seabed on the cheap.” Mr Boyle said: “Although the Scottish Government reported a £1bn underspend this year, it did so from a combination of additional funding from the UK government and one-off savings. “A forecast gap of nearly £5bn remains between what ministers want to spend on public services and the funding available to them. The Scottish Government needs to prepare more detailed plans setting out how it will close that gap by the end of the decade.” Finance Secretary Shona Robison said: “These unqualified accounts show that the Scottish Government has once again demonstrated the firm grip we have on the public finances - despite the continued impact of inflation, pressure on public sector pay and wider geopolitical instability. “In order to balance the budget whilst prioritising funding to protect public services and support the most vulnerable, consequential funding was carefully applied, emergency spend controls were introduced and savings measures were implemented. “The Scottish Government cannot overspend on its Budget and - as we do every year - we left a small underspend in 2024/25. “There is no loss of spending power to the Scottish Government and our effective and prudent financial management means every penny has been reallocated for the current financial year, so it is spent where it is needed most.”
