What assessment it has made of whether the resources allocated to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman are sufficient, in light of report…

All officeholders are required to submit an annual budget bid to the SPCB for approval. It is for the SPSO to decide on its total bid. Budget bids, including the SPSO’s, were scrutinised by the SPCB in late 2025 before consideration by the Finance and Public Administration Committee in January 2026. The bids were agreed by Parliament as a whole in the Budget Bill for 2026-27. The SPCB considered a request for contingency funding from the SPSO on 25 June 2026. The SPCB approved contingency funding of up to £203,304 for six investigative roles for the remainder of the 2026-27 period. The SPSO had requested this resource to cover three financial years, however, the SPCB did not considered it possible, at this stage, to consider the bids for 2027-28 and 2028-29. As a matter of good financial governance, these should be considered as part of the budget process. The SPSO have been advised to re-submit those requests as part of the 2027-28 budget process. The SPCB will consider all officeholder budget bids for 2027-28 in November.