Research and analysis

New data shows borrowing for this year running higher than forecast at last October’s Budget.

Funding and spending growth are set to slow. Without a top-up, health spending will be flat in 2025–26 and tricky trade-offs elsewhere loom too.

How have public sector pay and employment changed in Scotland in recent years and what are the implications of those changes?

We borrowed and spent more than other countries to respond to the pandemic and the sharp rise in energy prices two years later.

Scotland’s schools are relatively well funded. Falling pupil rolls and workforce planning represent both challenges and opportunities going forwards. 

What are the consequences of the proliferation of deferred small pension pots and what are the merits of different potential policy responses?

The OBR forecast will underpin the Chancellor’s decisions at the next Spring Forecast.

Council tax in Scotland – as in England – is out of date, regressive and distortionary. How should it be reformed, and what would the effects be?

We present the first consistent estimates of what has happened to Ministry of Justice funding since the early 2000s and put these changes in context.

A submission by IFS researchers Kate Ogden and David Phillips to a government consultation on the principles and objectives of council funding reform.

Scotland’s Tax Strategy is welcome but says little concrete about tax policy. And some actual tax policy is divorced from any sensible strategy. 

2025–26 will continue the substantial above-inflation increases in funding for English councils, but their costs have also been outpacing inflation.

Confusion is built into our approach to net zero. We need to be more pragmatic about whether emissions will genuinely be new. 

In-year top-ups mean big increases in Scottish NHS spending this year – but that means plans for 2025–26 now look relatively less generous.

The government spent billions on support to help households with their energy bills in 2022–23. Could a better-designed package have saved money?

How will the latest plans for spending in 2024–25 boost the amount that the Scottish Government has to spend next year and beyond?