THE BBC has U-turned on its initial refusal to correct “misreporting” on the Scottish Government’s Budget, according to the Culture Secretary.
Angus Robertson publicly called out the BBC after an error in its report on the tax and spending plans laid out at Holyrood by Finance Secretary Shona Robison on Tuesday.
Among the headline changes, the SNP Government adjusted the thresholds of three tax bands: the starter, basic, and intermediate rates. Robison told MSPs that the changes mean that 55% of Scots would be paying less tax than if they lived south of the Border.
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However, in a BBC Radio 4 news bulletin on the Budget, the broadcaster reported the opposite.
“The Scottish Government has delivered its final budget before the Holyrood elections, including changes to income tax brackets, taxes applied to private jets, as well as properties worth more than £1 million,” BBC listeners were told.
“Two of the six Scottish income tax bands will be raised, meaning more than half of workers in Scotland will pay more tax than if they lived elsewhere in the UK.”
The BBC misreported the Scottish Government budget on its flagship network radio programme @BBCPM yesterday. They have subsequently apologised to me but refused an on-air correction. This morning @BBCr4today has not reported on Scottish Budget at all. #ScottishBudget pic.twitter.com/l3f1I56MhV
— Angus Robertson (@AngusRobertson) January 14, 2026
Robertson pointed to a story on the BBC news website which had the facts right, saying: “Both can’t be correct.”
The Culture Secretary said later on Tuesday that the BBC had been in touch to apologise “for the misreporting of the Scottish Government Budget”. “Look forward to the on-air clarification,” he added.
On Wednesday morning, however, Robertson said: “The BBC misreported the Scottish Government budget on its flagship network radio programme @BBCPM yesterday.
“They have subsequently apologised to me but refused an on-air correction. This morning @BBCr4today has not reported on Scottish Budget at all.”
Around 90 minutes later, he posted again to say that the BBC had “reconsidered its earlier refusal and is now going to make an on-air correction”.
Asked for a response, the BBC pointed to the correction read out on air. It said: "We would like to correct a mistake made in this news summary yesterday, where we said the Scottish Budget would mean more than half of workers will pay more tax than if they live elsewhere in the UK.
"The tax changes announced in Holyrood will actually lead 55% of workers in Scotland paying less tax compared to other parts of the UK. We apologise for this error."
Elsewhere on Wednesday, First Minister John Swinney said that “Scotland is in a strong position where the majority of taxpayers in Scotland are paying less tax” than in the rest of the UK.
Looking to 2026-27, he said 55% of taxpayers “are paying less tax in Scotland than if they lived in the rest of the United Kingdom” – and he said many benefit from a range of Scottish Government policies such as free prescriptions and free university tuition, while council tax and water bills are also at “lower levels”.
Opposition parties at Holyrood have criticised the “marginal” impact increases in the lower income tax thresholds would have.
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Scottish Labour finance spokesperson Michael Marra said for most people, the changes will save them “potentially about 70p a week”, adding: “You couldn’t buy a Mars bar for that.”
He added: “It really is tiny, marginal changes and this is what the Finance Secretary was trumpeting.
“What she didn’t talk about was the large number of people who are being dragged into the higher tax bands over the period of the next three years, which is the single biggest tax change in the Budget.”
The Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) said that in 2026-27 it expects 835,000 people to pay income tax at “at least” the higher rate – which amounts to 26.3% of taxpayers.
That compares to 304,000 (12.1%) who paid higher rate taxes in 2016-17, before the SNP Government made changes to the income tax regime north of the Border.
By 2028-29, the number paying the higher rate or above could increase to 948,000 – making up almost three in 10 (28.7%) of taxpayers, the experts forecast.
SFC chairman Professor Graeme Roy said that means public sector workers are increasingly having to pay the higher rates of tax, “whether it be nurses, whether it be teachers”.
Speaking the day after the Scottish Government draft Budget for 2026-27 was published, he said freezing the threshold for higher rate income tax bands means “we’re really beginning to see the effects of fiscal drag feeding through to the tax base in Scotland”.
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