Scotland's Finance Secretary Shona Robison has announced up to £500m of funding cuts as the government seeks to make savings in this financial year.

Ms Robison told parliament the country was facing "enormous and growing" financial pressure, including additional costs of £800m in this financial year.

She cited public sector pay deals, "prolonged" Westminster austerity, inflation, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

As well as direct cuts, the government will reallocate up to £460m raised in an auction of seabed plots for offshore projects - cash that was previously earmarked to tackle the climate crisis.

The finance secretary told parliament: "We cannot ignore the severe financial challenges we face.

"We will continue to be a fiscally responsible government and balance the budget each year - as we have done every year for 17 years and we will do again this year.

“But this will mean we must unfortunately take difficult decisions along the way.”

Opposition figures pointed to a Scottish Fiscal Commission report that found much of the financial pressure on the public purse “comes from the Scottish government’s own decisions”.

The Scottish government introduced emergency curbs on all "non-essential" spending last month, including a recruitment freeze.

It said cost-cutting measures were necessary amid pay negotiations involving council workers, doctors, train drivers, nurses and teachers.

Ms Robison’s announcement comes the day before First Minister John Swinney is due to unveil his first Programme for Government, setting out his administration’s policy goals.