Human Rights and the Scottish Budget 2025-26

As the Scottish Government publishes its tax and spending proposals for 2025-26, our Chair Professor Angela O’Hagan says a human rights-driven approach to budgeting is the way to truly transform lives across Scotland

Drastic reform is needed to secure Scotland's finances and public services for the future, according to Scotland's Auditor General Stephen Boyle. In a recent report, he said:

"A fundamental change is needed to how public money is spent, to ensure services can meet demand and remain affordable beyond the short-term...

"The Scottish Government should build equalities and human rights into its decisions about public service reform, to understand how financial decisions will affect different groups in society and minimise the negative impacts on people’s lives."

Watching the Scottish Government Budget for 2025-26 announcement today, there were multiple references to how the government is listening.  On child and food poverty, and on the housing crisis that the Commission highlighted in our Spotlight on the Highlands and Islands, the Cabinet Secretary indicated positive allocations.  I hope the government are indeed listening to the people who told us about the gaps in their basic rights and will be taking action to address these issues within these proposed funding allocations.

On prisons, where the Commission's Spotlight on Places of Detention has revealed the extreme denials of human rights, there was little immediate alleviation offered in the Budget statement.  On Access to Justice, another of our Spotlight areas of focus, we will be looking at the detail of the Draft Budget to scrutinise spending - or lack thereof - on addressing the immediate needs, including the funding of legal aid provision in Scotland.

The commitment to end the punitive two-child cap over the course of the Parliament is of course welcome, as is the broader commitment to winter fuel payments.  However in a budget that was presented as being focused on poverty, as experienced by many across Scotland, there was a notable contrast in, albeit welcome, levels of prioritised investment in Scotland's culture sector and protections there, with the significantly smaller investment in supporting delivery of the Disability Action Plan and realising the rights of Scotland's disabled people, where we know that poverty intersects so significantly. 

Overall, among the many commitments issued by the Cabinet Secretary, there was no mention of how the approach to decision-making applies the human rights principles in budgeting the government has committed to, or the recommendations of its own Equality and Human Rights Budget Advisory Group. 

Human rights budgeting is essential to create a long-term spending approach which supports marginalised groups, and ensures public services are directed where they are most needed, such as toward under-served areas with high poverty rates.

It puts transparency, accountability and equity first, guiding public bodies to make informed decisions. It provides a map towards fairer taxation. And it embeds consultation with the people most affected, giving them a voice in decisions that affect their lives.

According to the evidence we have, however, the Scottish Government is not yet budgeting through a human rights lens – a point we have made at Parliamentary Committees and in consultation responses many times.

Rating the Scottish Government's performance via the Open Budget Survey, we can see some improvements in recent years in transparency, available documentation and openness of information - but it is clear there is a long way to go to embed these approaches to decision-making across government departments.

The Commission will continue to ask those responsible for public services to embed human rights principles into their planning and delivery. It is an evidence-driven, effective way to focus outcomes on the issues central to people's lives, such as food, housing, transport and an adequate income. Above all, to lay the foundations for meaningful change.

You can read more about human rights budgeting on the dedicated page of our website at www.scottishhumanrights.com.

A more detailed analysis of the Scottish Budget by the SHRC will be published week 10th December.

[Professor O'Hagan is a former member of the Scottish Government Equality and Human Rights Budget Advisory Group.  Dr Alison Hosie, Research Officer at the Commission, is a current member].