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Performance Analysis

To assess how our economic development support meets our objectives of benefiting businesses, people and the Scottish economy, we apply a comprehensive measurement framework. We use performance measures to help monitor the contribution we make to Scotland's economic performance and the longer-term goals of the Scottish Government. We work closely with our partner agencies - Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise in particular - to further align our measurement approaches and actively keep this under review.

Results Against Key Performance Measures

The final outturn positions are indicated below:

Outcome Measure2025/26 Target Range2025/26 Outturn2024/25 Outturn
Planned real living wage jobs13,000-15,00012,45915,003
Of which planned higher paid jobs5,200-7,5004,889*
Planned innovation investment (£m)330-500355442
Planned capital expenditure (£bn)0.8-1.61.021.16
Growth funding (£m)340-380348367
Planned export sales (£bn)1.9-2.42.152.46
Estimated Co2e savings (000s tonnes)400-5005181,449
*Not measured

Scottish Enterprise's 2025-26 operating year continued to be influenced by a challenging economic and business operating environment that impacted many businesses and their investment decisions, including:

  • General global instability and increased levels of conflict.
  • Higher costs for businesses, especially employment costs.
  • Weak economic growth domestically and in a number of Scotland's main export markets.
  • Greenfield Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Western Europe fell for the third year, particularly acute in the renewables sector. Global uncertainty and geopolitical tensions saw international companies increasingly adopting localisation or regionalisation as the core element of their growth and investment strategies, rather than overseas investment.
  • Delays in investment decisions being made in the offshore wind sector.