The SNP does not govern as a majority meaning that it needs another party to back or abstain its budget plans before they can be passed in Holyrood.

The stage one vote on the draft budget does not take place until February.

But before finance secretary Shona Robison sets out her tax and spending plans in parliament on Wednesday the government have been meeting with opposition parties to see what demands they have in any exchange for their support.

This year the Scottish Greens and Liberal Democrats are seen as the parties who could be gearing up to provide that backing, though over the weekend it is the latter that is seen as the most likely to form a deal after its leader Alex Cole-Hamilton told the Herald on Sunday there were "areas of great communality" between his party and the SNP.

So what are the Scottish Greens and the Scottish Lib Dems key asks - and what are their red lines.

Greens key demands

Essentially they have two.

They want £4.7 billion for climate and nature action, as well as fair funding for councils. The latter demand would including the removal of a council tax freeze and any cap to increase council tax.

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The party have various specific demands which fit into these broad requests, for example they want the scrapping of peak rail fares, a £2 cap on bus fares (both which would come under the first ask). They also want the free school meals for all pupils in primary 6 and primary 7.

In an interview with The Herald today, Ross Greer, the Scottish Greens's finance spokesman, explained that the demands should be regarded as "a menu" of proposals to the government and that his party would consider whether or not to back the budget depending on what choices ministers made.

"We have a long list of proposals set out as a menu," he said. "They would need to choose a sufficient number of them for us to feel we have got a reasonable value out of the budget."

 

So what are the Greens red lines?

The party has made clear that it would not support a budget if it reduced spending on nature and climate action from the £4.7bn set out last year.

It also would not back a budget which included a council tax freeze or a cap.

And finally, it has stated that the budget would need to commit to some spending on independence.

 

What do the Lib Dems want?

The main ask from Alex Cole-Hamilton's party which has four MSPs is around support for the NHS.

Mr Cole-Hamilton in particular is demanding greater action on cutting waiting times for treatment for both young people and adults experiencing mental health problems.

Further demands from the party have been around more support for people suffering from long Covid and fairer funding for local government and policies which would grow the economy - a key goal for John Swinney's government.

Like the Greens, the Lib Dems also want an end to the council tax freeze, The party believes more support for councils will help tackle problem in education such as classroom violence.

“After nearly two decades of SNP failure, public services are on their knees," Mr Cole-Hamilton told The Herald.

“That’s why Scottish Liberal Democrats will make our voices heard on what really matters. That means getting our constituents fast access to healthcare like GPs and dentists, tackling Long Covid and the mental health crisis, fighting for a fair deal for carers, lifting up Scottish education and growing the economy.

“We will always act like grown-ups, but the SNP will need to pull out all the stops to persuade us because for too many people it just feels like nothing works anymore.”

 

What are the Lib Dems red lines?

The first is that 'not a penny' is spent on independence.

Could this be a problem for the SNP? Politically it could be a problem and the Greens and Alba are likely to be highly critical if the government does not make a commitment to progressing the independence cause.

However, in truth since John Swinney became First Minister little money has been spent on independence.

The latest paper in the Building a New Scotland series - one on justice in an independence Scotland - was published in May at a cost of  £11,867 to produce.  It is not known if any more papers will be published in this series.

A number of civil servants are working on policies relating to independence but it is understood this group of officials work on in other policy areas too.

The Lib Dems second red line is no more spending on plans for a National Care Service.

Ministers are facing difficulties getting its Bill to set up the service through Holyrood after the Greens in October became the latest opposition party to withdraw support.