Scottish Government allocates further £8.6bn to tackling COVID-19
All £8.6 billion of consequential funding guaranteed to the Scottish Government for 2020-21 has been allocated to tackling the pandemic, a new budget update has confirmed.
The Spring Budget Revision (SBR) details a further £2.5bn of coronavirus spending since September.
This includes £780 million for business support, taking the total to more than £3bn in the current financial year, and an additional £494m to health and sport, while £745m has been reprioritised within existing budgets to help deal with the impact of COVID-19.
During the year, the Scottish Government has also deployed a total of £100m of resource and capital funding from the Scotland Reserve.
Finance secretary Kate Forbes said: “The SBR highlights once again the enormous economic impact of the global pandemic, which reaches into every area of spending and continues to stretch our resources.
“It confirms that every penny received by the Scottish Government to tackle COVID-19 has been channelled to where it is needed most.”