This surface-coated cutting instrument is one including a substrate and a coating formed on the substrate, wherein the coating contains one or more TiB2 layers, and the TiB2 layers contain TiB2 and Cl. This surface-coated cutting instrument is characterized in that the atomic ratio (Cl/(Ti+Cl)) of Ti and Cl in the TiB2 layers is higher in a first region than in a second region, given that the first region is a 0.5 mu m-thick region from the substrate-side interface, and the second region is a 0.5 mu m-thick region from the coating-surface-side interface.