HUMZA Yousaf will be grilled by Holyrood’s committee chairs about his vision for Scotland this week, as his finance secretary reveals how much money is available for it.
The First Minister will make his debut appearance before the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party Conveners Group on Wednesday.
The session, broadcast live on the parliament’s website, is due to last around 90 minutes.
The focus will be the new policy prospectus Mr Yousaf published in mid April, ‘Equality, opportunity, community: New leadership - a fresh start’.
Its key points included tackling child poverty, resetting relations with business, better public services, progressive taxation, and the environment.
Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur, the Deputy Presiding Officer and Chair of the Conveners Group, said: “This session will give conveners the opportunity to jointly question the new First Minister, early on in his Premiership, on his vision and priorities for the Scottish Government as well as issues of interest to the work of Parliament’s committees.”
Launching his policy prospectus, Mr Yousaf said he would be “unapologetic about making “tough decisions” to free up money for his priorities.
On Thursday, finance secretary Shona Robison will give MSPs some insight into how strained the public finances are when she sets out the Medium-Term Financial Strategy.
The five-year headlines figures are likely to have been badly hit by inflation.
The Government has also created an advisory group on tax as it looks to increase revenue for the 2024/25 budget.
Ms Robison said the pandemic, war in Ukraine and inflation had combined to bring about “the most challenging financial situation since devolution”.
Delivering a balanced budget was “becoming increasingly difficult”, particularly as much of Holyrood’s funding was tied to decisions taken by the UK Government, she said.
“We have already taken significant action to increase the funding available through our tax-raising powers.
"We want our tax strategy to be informed by a broad range of views and the group I am establishing this summer is one part of our engagement with the public and experts in the sector as we build the most progressive tax system in the UK.
“We continue to press the UK Government to provide the funding and powers to meet the scale of these challenges.”
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