Scotland’s Auditor General says the public sector needs to reform quickly to avoid an unprecedented over-spend.
Speaking after an Audit Scotland briefing, Stephen Boyle said the next Scottish Budget would be challenging for the Government at Edinburgh.
Mr Boyle (pictured) predicted the problems would get even harder next year.
“We’ve commented for many years that parts of the Scottish public sector, particularly the National Health Service and social care, are unsustainable — that there needs to be reform there,” Mr Boyle said.
“In light of the current financial challenges there’s a very real risk that this unsustainable picture is affecting much wider parts of the Scottish public sector.”
He said pressures on Scotland’s public finances pre-dated the current economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, but had worsened because of them.
Mr Boyle listed some of the rising costs in the public sector, including enhanced pay offers negotiated for workers, reaching £700 million ($A1.2 billion) so far; rising fuel costs; and capital projects increasing by about 30 per cent.
He called on the Scottish Government to effectively implement the plans laid out in its resource spending review.
These included establishing a National Care Service, replacing education bodies and changes to the justice system, as well as maintaining the level of the pay bill.
“Those reforms need to be done much more quickly and more successfully than they have been in previous iterations,” the Auditor General said.
Minister for Public Finance, Tom Arthur said the Government recognised the scale of the challenge ahead.
“The Scottish Budget is worth £1.7 billion ($A3 billion) less than when it was published last December because of the rapid rise in inflation,” Mr Arthur said.
“At the same time, demand for Government support is understandably increasing and so to prioritise help where it is needed most, we have to make tough decisions.”
Edinburgh, 19 November 2022
