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Consequently, the final approved Total Budget for 2025-26 amounted to £356.6m, comprising a cash budget of £232.7m and non-cash allocation of £123.9m. Details of Scottish Enterprise's financial outturn against the budget allocated by the Scottish Government for 2025-26 are included within the Parliamentary Accountability and Audit Report section of the Accountability Report.

Scottish Enterprise entered the 2025-26 financial year with a strong pipeline of projects with a value greater than our available budget. In order to allow maximum flexibility in the delivery of these projects, budget allocations were made based on the prioritised pipeline of projects rather than on available income. This was done recognising that there would be natural reductions in planned expenditure through the year, as well as the introduction of new priority projects, and this would be closely monitored with management of our income and expenditure budgets throughout the year. The over-allocations totalled £47.4m and were split between Capital (CDEL) of £39.7m and Resource (RDEL) of £7.7m. Financial Transactions (FT) budget was balanced from the start of the financial year. The chart below shows how the budget position changed during the financial year resulting in a successful out-turn position.

The CDEL budget pressure eased relatively quickly mainly through reduced expenditure forecasts as some projects did not proceed or progressed more slowly than expected. At the same time, pressures were increasing in the FT budget due to reduced income expectations and both budgets were re-balanced by the half year point primarily through funding investment expenditure from CDEL rather than FT.