£500m cuts confirmed as Scottish Government seeks to balance budget
Finance Secretary Shona Robison says all portfolios at Holyrood will be affected by the cuts
The Scottish Government has confirmed it has to make £500million worth of cuts as it attempts to fill a massive budget black hole.
Finance Secretary Shona Robison's told Holyrood all portfolios will be impacted with reduced spending for active travel, a return of peak time rail fares, and funds diverted from nature restoration.
Making the announcement to the Scottish Parliament, Shona Robison insisted "urgent action" was needed to ensure the Government can balance its budget for this year.
All government parties will need to make savings
Ms Robison said as well as the "direct savings" she was making, she would also "reluctantly" be using up to £460 million of cash raised via the ScotWind scheme - where parts of the Scottish seabed are leased out for offshore wind farms.
But she told MSPs at Holyrood: "As we look ahead, it is clear that further significant action will be needed to reset the public finances onto a sustainable path."
Government departments will be asked to make a further £188 million of additional savings, with these coming from across all portfolios, Ms Robison said.
This includes £115.8 million of savings from the health and social care budget - though, in a letter to MSPs on Holyrood's Finance Committee, Ms Robison offered "assurances that the health portfolio will seek to protect key frontline emergency services".
Elsewhere, spending on transport is down by £23.7 million; net zero and energy is reduced by £23.4 million; with social justice down £15.7 million.
Scottish Government blames Westminster austrity
Ms Robison said: "Were Scotland an independent country, we would not be paying the price for bad decisions taken at Westminster - whether that be years of austerity cuts, Brexit, or reckless mini budgets - all of which have taken money out of the economy and funding for public services".
However, Scottish Conservative spokeswoman Liz Smith said the independent Scottish Fiscal Commission had made "abundantly clear" that much of the financial pressure came from the Scottish Government's own decisions.
She said Scotland was losing out on £624 million in revenue because its economy is growing at a slower rate than the UK as whole - adding that this "just happens to be close to the swingeing expenditure cuts that the Finance Secretary is announcing today".
Finance Secretary accused of passing the buck
Scottish Labour's finance spokesman, Michael Marra, said Ms Robison's statement was a "threadbare attempt to pass the buck".
He added: "Almost half of the total adjustments today are pulled from a one-off raid on ScotWind money, lost now into the black hole rather than investing for our future.
"It almost guarantees this short-term sticking plaster politics will run and run."