What we do
We are the independent fiscal institution for Scotland.
We produce Scotland’s official, independent economic and fiscal forecasts to accompany the Scottish Government’s Budget cycle.
The Scottish Fiscal Commission is a Non-Ministerial Office – this means we are part of the Scottish Administration but not part of the Scottish Government ensuring our operational independence.
We are directly accountable to the Scottish Parliament for the delivery of our functions which were set out in the Scottish Fiscal Commission Act 2016.
The Commission must produce two reports each financial year forecasting Scottish GDP, income from devolved taxes and expenditure on devolved social security benefits. Our forecasts inform the Scottish Budget and assist in the scrutiny of fiscal events. The Commission also provides an assessment of the reasonableness of the Government’s borrowing projections. In 2023 we will produce a report on the long-term sustainability of the Scottish Government’s public finances.
We are based in Governor’s House, Edinburgh. We buy in some administrative support services from the Scottish Government, including IT support, human resources and financial services.
Our budget for 2023-24 is £2,485,000.
rtainty that further tax and spending devolution will introduce into the budgeting process’.
The Commission is part of a growing international trend to establish independent fiscal institutions to promote sound fiscal policy and sustainable public finances. The Commission was originally established as a non-statutory body in 2014 as the Scottish Government began to collect devolved taxes. On 1 April 2017 we became a statutory body and our functions expanded to reflect the additional powers devolved in the Scotland Act 2016.