SNP 2016 manifesto: key points

The SNP manifesto is big. At 72 pages, it is the longest of the 2016 manifestos, and it is also physically the biggest, with a cover featuring 'Re-elect' in a large letters above a picture of Nicola Sturgeon. It did not contain the promise of a second referendum on independence, but focused on the SNP's record and promises in government.

Child health and education feature prominently in the party's proposals, with hours of free childcare to be doubled, a Finnish-style baby box for every set of new parents supported by an extension of the family nurse partnership and 500 more health visitors.

The SNP would develop a new funding formula for schools to distribute an expanded attainment fund and implement all the recommendations from the Commission for Widening Access. Student support would be reviewed so it follows individuals rather than institutions.

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The party promises funding for health will rise by £500m more than inflation, supported by more training places for GPs and advance nurse practitioners to feed into the new primary care model. Five new elective treatment centres in the model of the Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank would be established in Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee, Livingston and Edinburgh.

Lesson learned in the Scottish Patient Safety Programme will be used to drive improvement across the wider public sector. The way local authorities and health boards are structured will be reviewed, as will their relationship with each other, under the SNP. This would include decentralising budgets and democratic oversight to local communities.

On the economy, 100,000 small businesses would be lifted out of business rates with an extension of the Small Business Bonus, alongside a commitment to extend fast broadband throughout Scotland. 

Railways would get £5bn and roads £1.4bn as part of a £20bn infrastructure programme. 50,000 new homes would be built.

The manifesto contains a commitment to cut Air Passenger Duty by half in the next parliament, but income tax will be frozen, with the caveat that the additional rate may be increased from 45p from 2018.

The SNP would reform the council tax so the higher bands pay more, unless the household earns less than £25,000.

To tackle inequality the SNP would accept all recommendations of poverty adviser Naomi Eisenstadt, meaning public bodies would be required to measure policy against a duty to reduce inequalities. A new Scottish social security agency would handle the new devolved welfare powers.

A new Climate Change Act is promised, to set a new target of cutting emissions by more than 50 per cent by 2020. Fracking, meanwhile, will remain on hold unless "it can be proven beyond any doubt that there is no risk to health, communities or the environment".