A CROSS-PARTY committee of MSPs has warned the Scottish government it has no “strategic approach to managing Scotland’s public finances,” ahead of next month’s budget.

Holyrood’s finance committee published its damning new report on the state of public finances today, with the draft Scottish budget due on December 4.

The scrutiny report argued that for each of the last three years, the finance secretary had been forced to make emergency cuts in-year to balance the books – most recently when Shona Robison slashed  £500m from public services in September.

The committee’s remarks echo those of Audit Scotland last month. The audit watchdog slammed what it called the Scottish government’s record of short-term thinking and reliance on one-off cuts to pay for recurring costs – a record it warned would make for “difficult decisions” ahead.

Committee chairman Kenneth Gibson, of the SNP, called on ministers to consider introducing a new category of public spending – called preventative spend – to encourage a shift in culture putting public services and Holyrood finances on a more sustainable footing.

He said: “Our committee is deeply concerned about the Scottish government’s lack of strategic approach to managing Scotland’s public finances.

“There is little evidence of medium and long-term financial planning.

“Year-on-year budgeting has become increasingly challenging, with significant emergency controls being required in each of the last three years.

“We recognise devolved governments have fewer flexibilities to deal with ‘shocks’.

“However, many issues impacting the 2024-25 budget – such as higher than anticipated pay settlements and increasing social security payments – could have been foreseen and mitigated when the budget was set, last December.”

A Scottish government spokeswoman said: “The Scottish government has a strong record of balancing its budget every year.

“However, this has been increasingly difficult in the face of high inflation, the effects of Brexit and underinvestment by the previous UK government, so difficult choices have had to be made.

“Ministers continue to do all they can to ensure public finances are sustainable, despite the significant uncertainty around funding from the UK government in the medium to long term.

“Scottish ministers will give this report careful consideration and will respond to the committee after the 2025-26 Scottish budget is published, in line with normal practice.”