The Scottish Government has published its Draft Budget for 2017-18 indicating its tax and spending proposals for the next year.

Its stated priorities include a number of areas of relevance to the third sector – namely that the Scottish Government will:

• continue to invest in research and development infrastructure and capacity building, supporting vital collaborative working between the NHS, academia, industry and the medical research charities and deepening Scotland’s global reputation as a destination of choice for health science
• fund voluntary organisations working in the criminal justice sector and meeting the need of victims of crime

Scottish rate of income tax

In the Budget, the Scottish Government confirmed that it would not replicate the UK Treasury’s tax cut for higher earners. The 40% threshold of higher rate tax will only rise by inflation, to £43,430 in Scotland. The higher tax rate will start at £45,000 elsewhere in the UK. In practice this will mean that people will have to earn less in Scotland to be eligible for higher rate relief on Gift Aid.

OSCR

The Draft Budget also includes the amount apportioned for the OSCR and details the aims of the Regulator, which are to:

• ensure public confidence in charities through effective regulation and sharing of information
• support charity trustees to understand and comply with their legal duties
• facilitate effective management via straightforward and proportionate reporting (increasing online services where appropriate), and
• investigate apparent misconduct in charities, taking remedial or protective action as appropriate.

Apprenticeship Levy

From April 2017, revenues from the UK Government’s Apprenticeship Levy will replace funding previously provided to the Scottish Government as a traditional share of UK Departmental spending. Reflecting on the Apprenticeship Levy consultation responses received, the Draft Budget 2017-18 delivers a range of interventions that further support skills, training and employment in Scotland. In particular the Scottish Government will:

• continue to expand the number of Modern Apprenticeship opportunities as part of planned growth to 30,000 new starts each year by 2020, alongside an increase in the number of Graduate Level and Foundation Apprenticeships during 2017-18
• support measures to tackle structural unemployment issues and challenge inequalities and under-representation in the labour market by supporting people who face barriers to education, training or employment, in partnership with employers, local authorities and the third sector
• continue with the implementation of the Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce Programme; and y respond to the skills needs of employers, through the establishment of a new Flexible Workforce Development Fund, and through ongoing and sector-specific skills support for priority sectors in the economy such as digital, care and early years.