By bizn_fun 
With an election looming, don’t be surprised if there’s a lack of real detailpublished at 13:45 GMT
Douglas Fraser
Scotland business & economy editor
Today is not all about the budget for the 2026-27 financial year.
That sets out one year of spending on day-to-day spending, sometimes known as
the current or revenue budget, plus the smaller capital budget for items that
last beyond March 2027.
We’ll also get a Spending Review. That sets out the path of annual
budgets going beyond the next financial year. On day-to-day/resource budgets, it
goes to 2028-29 and on capital, it covers the years to 2029-30.
Previous spending reviews have offered a disappointing lack of
detail, only giving figures for the highest level of budgeting – so there’s a
figure for education, for instance, but no breakdown of that.
Ahead of an election, and with Shona Robison wishing to avoid
giving ammunition to her political opponents or pre-empting the SNP manifesto,
it would not be surprising to find that disappointment repeated today.
We are also due to get an Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline and
Infrastructure Strategy, previously called the Infrastructure Investment Plan.
That is a long-delayed update on how the bigger capital projects
are getting on, their costings, and when they should be complete. It should
cover NHS national treatment centres, road upgrades, ferries, rail
electrification, flood prevention etc.
And as Shona Robison sits down, the Scottish Fiscal Commission
will publish its assessment of all this. Having seen the budget in advance,
telling ministers how much they can expect to receive in tax revenue and to pay
out in welfare benefits, it also publishes a forecast for Scotland’s economic
growth rate.