Programme for Government 2017 - key points

Nicola Sturgeon - Image credit: Parliament TV

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon set out the Scottish Government’s programme for government on 5 September. In it she laid out the sixteen bills her government proposes to put before the Scottish Parliament in the 2017/18 session, as well as other action it will take across all policy areas.

New legislation for 2017/18

• Budget Bill
• Climate Change Bill
• Crown Estate Bill
• Damages Bill
• Education Bill
• Land and Buildings Transaction Tax Bill
• Management of Offenders Bill
• Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility Bill
• Organ and Tissue Donation Bill
• Planning Bill
• Prescription Bill
• Safe Staffing Bill
• Sexual Offences (pardons and disregards) Bill
• Transport Bill
• Vulnerable Witnesses and Pre-recorded Evidence Bill
• Warm Homes Bill

Children and education

• Multi-year funding for local authorities to support recruitment and training of early years’ staff
• Rates relief for day nurseries
• An education governance bill with new powers for headteachers “formally establishing them as leaders of learning and teaching” and more funding direct to schools
• New regional education improvement collaborations to be set up
• New routes into teaching for priority areas and subjects
• Reform student support following findings of independent review in the autumn to open up university to “all who have the talent to attend”
• Increase in modern apprenticeships

Business and economy

• Increase support for business R&D by 70 per cent
• Create a network of Scottish trade envoys
• Create a Paris investment hub in addition to those already announced for London, Berlin, Dublin and Brussels
• Help for key growth sectors clean energy, lightweight manufacturing and financial technology sector and establishment of new body Fintech Scotland
• Direct government funding for the Acorn carbon capture and storage project in Aberdeenshire
• An additional £10m for a screen development and growth facility for Scotland’s film industry, bring total funding to £20m a year
• Establishment of a new ‘unlocking ambition challenge’ to encourage entrepreneurship with 40 start-ups to be supported by established entrepreneurs
• New strategic board for enterprise and skills, to be led by Nora Senior, formerly of British Chambers of Commerce
• A new south of Scotland enterprise agency
• Implementation of Barclay business rates review
• Establish a Scottish national investment bank

Environment

• Aim to phase out petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2032
• Low emissions zones to be introduced in Scotland’s four largest cities by 2020, followed by all other air quality management areas by 2023
• Spend on active travel to be doubled to £80m a year
• Introduce a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles
• Supporting Land Commission publication of its first plan to outline plans for first three years and future research

Health

• At least a real terms increase in the NHS budget
• A safe staffing bill to ensure sufficient staff in the right areas
• A health and social care delivery plan to shift resources to primary and community care
• An additional £20m for alcohol and drug misuse services
• Ill health strategy
• New strategy to tackle obesity including rules about marketing of foods high in fat, sugar and salt
• Implementation of ‘Frank’s Law’ making free personal care available for under-65s with certain conditions such as dementia
• Organ and tissue donor bill

Justice

• Protection of frontline police budget
• Presumption against short-term prison sentences to be increased to 12 months
• An automatic pardon for historic convictions for sexual offences that are now legal (i.e. for same sex relationships)
• Minimum age of criminal responsibility to be raised from 8 to 12
• A new criminal offence of drug driving in 2019

Social justice and equalities

• Creation of a £50m child poverty fund
• A financial health check for families on low incomes
• New support for young carers
• Free sanitary products to be provided in schools, colleges and universities
• Investigate the viability of a citizen’s basic income along with interested local authorities
• A national objective to end rough sleeping
• A short-life group to advise on action and legislation needed on homelessness
• A £10m a year ‘Eradicating Homelessness Together’ fund
• A comprehensive review of local governance next year
• At least one per cent of council budgets to be controlled by them
• Oppose repeal of Human Rights Act and withdrawal from European Convention on Human Rights
• A new race equality action plan
• Work with the TIE campaign on LGBT bullying
• Scottish Government will not oppose John Finnie’s member’s bill to ban smacking
• Will incorporate UN Convention of the Rights of the Child into law
• Lift the one per cent public sector pay cap

Finance/taxation

• Oppose leaving single market and customs union
• Produce a paper next year outlining all the current tax liabilities and all proposals for alternatives, including those from other parties, for discussion ahead of budget