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Joint review of Budget

Letter from Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport Michael Matheson MSP and Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy Kate Forbes MSP to the Convener, 21 June 2021

Dear Convenor, 

As you will be aware the Joint Review of the Budget as it relates to climate change commenced in September last year and has continued in the ensuing months.

An interim report on the progress of the Joint Review of the Budget was sent to the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform (ECCLR) Committee in March 2021 detailing the progress of the Review since September, and outlining how we propose to continue the work of the Review with the incoming Committee post-election.

As outlined in the interim report, the procurement exercise undertaken via ClimateXChange to award the research contract to support the Review was not successful. We remain committed to delivering meaningful improvements to processes and transparency with respect to the consideration of climate change in the Scottish Budget, and ensuring we have quality research evidence to support this.

Given the comprehensive nature of the evidence required, it was necessary for us to revise the timescales of the research project to ensure that the work can be carried out with sufficient depth and detail to provide viable and effective recommendations to enhance the assessment of spending decisions as they relate to climate change. As a result, the research project will now run from August 2021 to Summer 2022 and consequently, we expect the Joint Review of the Budget to conclude with agreed recommendations and actions during Summer 2022. Changes will be implemented, potentially incrementally, from Budget 2023-24 onwards.

In the meantime, we will continue to work to examine interim improvements that can be made to processes and transparency with respect to the consideration of climate change, ahead of the 2022-23 Budget.

A further update on the details of this work will be provided to the Committee for their consideration in coming weeks.

Yours sincerely,
Kate Forbes and Michael Matheson