Explainers

Block Grant funding

The Block Grant is split into two parts: Barnett and non-Barnett funding.

Barnett funding is the largest of the two and is updated every time the UK Government changes its spending plans for departments delivering devolved public services such as health. The Barnett formula is applied to the change in spending to calculate a population share of the adjustment for the Scottish Government.

Non-Barnett funding is a much smaller portion of funding. It was agreed at the last Spending Review between the UK Government and Scottish Government and is outside of the usual arrangements – the amounts are not calculated with the Barnett formula.

Block Grant funding is set before the start of each financial year based on the most recent UK Government spending allocations. If the UK Government changes this planned spending, funding for the Scottish Budget is adjusted accordingly using the Barnett formula. These adjustments are known as Barnett consequentials.