The next item of business is a debate on the programme for government 2025-26. I invite members who wish to speak in the debate to press their request-to-speak buttons.
15:26
The First Minister has set out an ambitious and bold plan for delivery over the next 12 months. As Deputy First Minister, I hold responsibility for cross-Government delivery and outcomes. Each of the commitments that the First Minister has set out demonstrates that this is a Government that believes in action to improve the lives of the people of Scotland today and tomorrow.
This Government is delivering positive change and tangible benefits with policies that people can see and feel in their daily lives, and my role is to ensure that that continues to be the case. However, with stretched public finances, we cannot do everything and hard decisions must sometimes be made, so we focus on what has the greatest and most positive impact for the people of Scotland now and how we can invest for the future.
This Government has always been very clear on what is needed, and the First Minister has set out his priorities. He set them out on the day when he accepted his position as leader of the nation, and he reiterated them today. They are, first, eradicating child poverty so that no child in Scotland sees their opportunities curtailed; secondly, growing a wellbeing economy to create new jobs and a fairer society; thirdly, tackling the climate emergency to help nature to heal and fight climate change, while investing in a greener future for us all; and fourthly, providing high-quality and sustainable public services so that we are healthier and every community, whether urban or rural, can thrive. I would hope that those four objectives are ones that every member can get behind in this chamber.
From global conflict to shifts in global trade, not all challenges can be controlled and solved in Scotland. However, we can collectively ensure that Scotland is ready and resilient. We can improve the lives of individuals, families and communities with the programme for government, and we are already doing so.
In last year’s programme for government, there were a number of bills that were going to benefit the lives of disabled people. Those bills were all dropped over the past 12 months, and there is nothing in the programme for government for 2025-26 specifically for disabled people. You talk about helping the most vulnerable. What in the programme for government will help disabled people, who make up 20 per cent of Scotland’s population?
I remind members to always speak through the chair.
I assure the member that this Government is absolutely committed to delivering for disabled people. He will not find this Government following in the footsteps of the United Kingdom Government, which has completely deserted disabled people.
I was coming on to some of this Government’s achievements, not the least of which is the investment of £6.9 billion in a Scottish benefits system that prioritises dignity and fairness for every human being. In our efforts to eradicate child poverty, we have successfully delivered the Scottish child payment.
In tackling the climate crisis, we halved Scotland’s emissions between 1990 and 2022 while growing the economy by 67 per cent, and we have created around 75 per cent of all new woodlands in the UK. We have installed 6,000 public charge points for electric vehicles, two years ahead of schedule.
To grow the economy from 2023 to 2024, through investment in Scottish Enterprise, we helped businesses to unlock a record £1.89 billion of planned capital investment. That has created or safeguarded more than 16,700 jobs. Those are tangible outcomes that people are experiencing today because of decisions that the Government has taken. In 2023, inward investment projects in Scotland grew by more than double the UK average and, for the ninth year running, Scotland remained the UK’s top-performing area for foreign direct investment, outside of London and the south-east. Investors believe in the potential that the Scottish economy has to offer.
Will the Deputy First Minister give way?
Over this session of Parliament, to December 2024, we supported the completion of almost 35,000 affordable homes, including more than 26,000 for social rent, and we have brought digital connectivity to some of the hardest-to-reach areas in Scotland. Between April 2024 and the end of January 2025, we delivered not only the 64,000 additional national health service appointments and procedures that we promised, but 11,500 more than had been planned.
Those achievements and many more than can be listed in the debate are the record of a Government that is committed to action and has delivered for the people of Scotland.
Will the minister take an intervention?
I will take a number of interventions, starting with Liz Smith’s.
Two budgets ago, the real-terms cut in the economy budget was 8.3 per cent, at a time when the forecasters said that the overall budget had gone up by 2.2 per cent. Business complained at the time that that was doing nothing to advance the skills agenda that we desperately need in Scotland for new jobs and new industries. Will the Deputy First Minister comment on that?
I am incredibly proud of the work that our enterprise agencies and the Scottish National Investment Bank have done over the past two years. We do not pretend that financial budgets are anything but challenging right across the UK. The Government has prioritised the areas of economic impact that will have the greatest potential for creating jobs and attracting inward investment. I referenced some of the Scottish Enterprise results from last year, from which we see that the agency is directly involved in creating jobs and ensuring that we attract inward investment. Those outcomes, which include the fact that we are the highest-performing area outside London and the south-east, demonstrate that we are investing in the right areas.
This programme for government has been brought forward because of a number of challenges that we are grappling with. The first is the lingering effects of Brexit, 14 years of austerity and inflation. There are also conflicts across the world, an increasing number of adverse weather events that have been brought on by climate change and the turmoil of tariffs, global trade wars and faltering economies. It is certain that we will see the effects of all that here, at home.
Will the minister take an intervention?
I will make a bit more progress and, if I have time, I will bring in other members.
The strain on the public purse and public services will continue. The strain on people’s finances, the stress and the uncertainty cannot be wished away. However, the Government is ready and resilient and it will ensure that Scotland is ready and resilient, too. To that end, we are refocusing and redoubling our efforts. The programme for government sets out the concrete actions that will make our communities healthier, fairer, greener and more prosperous and will make Scotland a better place to live, work, create and invest.
As the minister with responsibility for delivery and outcomes, my focus is on ensuring that the Government’s work is aligned with creating the greatest possible benefit for the people of Scotland. All the commitments in the programme for government do that. They are the actions that will make the biggest difference to improving people’s lives.
In the coming year, we will develop the systems needed to effectively scrap the impact of the two-child cap. That will limit the impact of a cruel UK Government policy on families in Scotland and support them through the on-going cost of living crisis.
We will continue with the Scottish child payment, which, this year, is expected to support around 330,000 children. We will introduce a universal pension-age winter heating payment from this winter, so that all pensioners are supported to heat their homes through the coldest months. We will also support the delivery of more than 8,000 affordable homes for social rent, mid-market rent and low-cost home ownership. That will ease the housing crisis and provide people with significant relief from the largest of their greatest monthly expenses.
I saw a reference to business rates in the programme for government. England is looking at creating a fairer business rates system that is particularly fairer for high streets. Like me, the cabinet secretary will understand that Scottish businesses are calling out for similar measures here. Does the Government intend to undertake a reform of business rates, particularly for retail, hospitality and leisure?
I thank the member for the opportunity to clarify that. This Government introduced reforms to non-domestic rates a number of years ago, based on an independent review. We are aware of what the UK Government is planning to introduce, which we believe will be self-financing. That has consequences for Scotland, because the business base is different here. There are simply larger businesses in England to self-finance.
In recognition of the on-going concerns raised by the licensed hospitality sector on the valuation methodology applied to non-domestic rate properties, we have announced today that we will commission an independent review to report by the end of next year and consider any recommendations. That will be independent and is entirely in line with what has been requested by the hospitality sector.
In the minute that I have left, I note that we will also introduce a heat in buildings bill to set targets. We will work with the UK Government to reform the consenting process through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Subject to the approval of the Housing (Scotland) Bill, we will begin work to improve outcomes for those who are at risk of homelessness and strengthen tenants’ rights. We will see to it that more people can see their general practitioner and receive care in the community. We will invest up to £200 million in the Scottish attainment challenge programme. We will establish invest Scotland—which I am particularly pleased about—to showcase Scottish investment opportunities to global investors. We will support entrepreneurship by creating a £2.9 million proof of concept fund. We will invest £150 million to support private investment in supply chain clusters for offshore wind.
All of that will lead to more thriving businesses and more high-quality employment for people living in Scotland. With those actions and more, we will deliver the greatest possible impacts for Scotland—tangible benefits that people will feel in their daily lives. I look forward to this afternoon’s debate.
I call Rachael Hamilton to open on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives.
15:37
Today’s programme for government is more of the same from the Scottish National Party. For 18 years, the SNP has broken promises, let people down and failed to deliver for the people of Scotland.
John Swinney’s Government looks like a Nicola Sturgeon Government or a Humza Yousaf Government. Old dogs cannot learn new tricks, and John Swinney has spent two decades around the Cabinet table. He is not doing anything new here. This is nothing that we have not heard before. It is simply another series of SNP pledges that are not worth the paper that they are written on, and yet another paper on chasing the Loch Ness monster—a proposal on independence, to gather dust with the other 13 papers that he has already published.
Today’s statement includes some commitments that we would welcome if we thought that they would ever be delivered, but they will not be. The goal to reduce child poverty is a laudable one, but the SNP regularly makes such big pledges with no clue how they will happen.
I wonder who the member thinks is responsible for Scotland having a lower unemployment rate than the rest of the UK and being the only part of the UK to see child poverty fall?
Kate Forbes is in charge of the economy. She will know that the Conservative Government made the UK one of the fastest-growing countries in the G7. I am surprised that she does not know that.
The programme for government speaks of reducing NHS waiting lists, but it has no clear and credible plan to do so. It speaks a lot about the economy, but it is lacking any tangible new ideas or proposals to deliver the growth that we desperately need. It is a document that does not live up to its ambitions.
After 18 years in power, this SNP Government is out of ideas, out of energy and out of touch with mainstream Scotland. Most people want the focus to be on the bread-and-butter issues that really affect their lives, daily concerns, hopes and needs. They do not want the usual nonsense from the SNP; they want a commonsense approach to improving their lives.
We believe that the public wants there to be a laser-like focus on several key issues. The SNP should have made the programme for government about bringing down bills, speeding up access to GP appointments, fixing the roads, raising school standards and delivering better value for money. My colleagues will talk about that later.
Those are the top issues that matter most to people in the real world. By not focusing on those issues year after year, the Scottish Parliament has left voters across Scotland feeling that politicians are disconnected and detached from reality.
I am sure that the SNP will claim that it is focusing on people’s priorities, but the evidence shows that it is not. It never delivers. We just have to look at public services and at our economy to see that. If it were delivering, waiting lists would be lower, schools would be providing brilliant opportunities for all of our children, potholes would be fixed and good jobs would be available all across the country. However, people need only open their door and look out along the streets where they live to see that that is not the case. The SNP way has failed. It is not working and, on the basis of today’s statement, it never will, because it is just, as I said, more of the same.
My party is setting out an alternative to the left-wing consensus of the SNP, Labour, Greens and Liberal Democrats. We are putting together a different way of doing things to deliver the change that Scotland desperately needs—positive commonsense Conservative policies that would improve people’s lives.
First, bills need to be brought down so that people can control more of their hard-earned money and how it is spent. Scotland has the highest tax rates in the United Kingdom. Workers here pay more than people in the same job south of the border, while businesses pay sky-high rates and a litany of other taxes.
The member is looking only at UK taxes. Does she accept that Britain and Scotland are low-tax economies compared with many countries in Europe?
John Swinney has imposed the highest tax burden on Scots on record, which is costing Scots £1.7 billion. [Interruption.] I am not quite sure whether the First Minister wants to intervene.
I was not aware that the First Minister had sought an intervention.
Okay.
Bills must be brought down, First Minister. Families need a break from paying more of the burden of tax that you have put on them.
Always speak through the chair, Ms Hamilton.
The problem with paying more and getting less is not just about higher bills—
Will the member give way?
I do not see why not.
The member is very keen that people’s bills should be brought down and that they should not pay more but get less. Does she accept that private rented sector tenants in Scotland are paying more for their homes than they would if they had a mortgage? They are paying more but getting less, so will she support the proposal for rent controls?
I will absolutely—100 per cent—not support the proposal on rent controls that the Greens and the SNP are pushing, because that will stifle the housing market and drive people out. It will not deal with the housing crisis, and Patrick Harvie knows that.
Every year, the SNP grandstands that it is throwing more money at the NHS, but waiting lists remain too long. The Government must bring forward a detailed plan for faster access to GP appointments. That can be done by removing bureaucracy, using technology to streamline the process and by investing more directly in the front line.
Our roads are also in desperate need of investment. Fixing the roads has not been a priority for the SNP since it turned against motorists. It decided that the way to meet net zero targets is to punish car drivers and make them pay more, when better roads would help the environment. It would mean that cars could travel more quickly and easily without emitting as much CO2, and it would mean fewer costly repairs. In rural areas such as mine, there is often no other option than to drive, because public transport is so bad. Fixing the roads should become a focus of this Government again.
Raising standards in schools should also be a focus of Government. On the SNP’s watch, they have fallen. When John Swinney was Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, our schools plummeted down the international league tables. Now, violence in schools has spiralled out of control.
Gender ideology and wellbeing take up too much time that should be spent on traditional learning. The Government must restore education standards by taking a tougher approach to bad behaviour, bringing back the focus on knowledge in the curriculum and investing in teaching posts.
Finally, but most importantly, the Government needs to get smarter at spending taxpayers’ money. Providing value for money is essential to restoring the public’s trust; they feel that Holyrood just does not get their concerns. People are paying more and they are getting less, year after year. They think that their politicians are at it, and that must change.
This programme for government is more of the same from the SNP. It is a John Swinney special—big promises with no plan for how to meet them. In a year’s time, we will look back at this statement in the same way as we look back at all the other previous SNP statements. All that this will achieve is more broken promises and more failed pledges, along with a lack of trust in the Government and its ability to deliver change.
I call Jackie Baillie to open on behalf of Scottish Labour. Jackie Baillie, you have up to six minutes.
15:45
So many broken promises, so many wasted years and so many Scots let down—that is the legacy of this SNP Government and it is a legacy that is wholly owned by John Swinney. The First Minister has been at the heart of this SNP Government for almost 18 years. As finance secretary, he cut budgets for GPs and clawed back money from health and social care partnerships, which face a deficit of £560 million. As education secretary, he downgraded the results of 125,000 working-class kids and failed to increase teacher numbers by 3,500—instead, teacher numbers are down.
The SNP thinks that it can cut a budget, partially restore it and then ask us to applaud it for doing so, but the public are not fooled. We now have a recycled, rebadged programme for government with nothing new, no vision and absolutely no guarantee of delivery. The point about delivery is key, because the SNP has had 18 years to deliver, and it has singularly failed to do so.
At the right hand of two First Ministers, Alex Salmond and then Nicola Sturgeon, John Swinney was trusted to run Government and to be the keeper of its secrets—oh, how he protected those secrets, whatever the cost. However, I think that John Swinney has demonstrated over this year that he is simply not up to the job and that he has run out of ideas—so much so, that the SNP has now taken to plagiarising Scottish Labour’s plans to end 8 am waits for GP appointments and to scrap peak-time fares. I am delighted, too, with the news about the joint education and NHS facility in Barra. Of course, that news follows my visit there with Donald MacKinnon, Scottish Labour’s candidate—[Interruption.]
I have to say that he is already—[Interruption.]
Ms Baillie, please resume your seat for a second.
I do not know whether Ms Baillie was in the chamber last week when I had to mention this to another colleague in the chamber, but we are in a Parliament and we are not part of a hustings, so please proceed accordingly.
Indeed, but I was simply going to make the comment that, in that instance, we had a candidate visiting Barra alongside me and, before he has even been elected, we appear to have delivered. Next, I am going to Caithness to talk to maternity campaigners—perhaps the Government would like to intervene there, too, and restore maternity services in the area.
As a former education secretary, John Swinney should know better than to steal someone else’s homework, but that is what it has come to, because this Government has run out of ideas; nowhere is that clearer than in Scotland’s NHS. What is the SNP’s record? NHS waiting times are up, with 800,000 Scots on an NHS waiting list; thousands are stuck in hospital beds as they wait for social care packages. Patients are struggling to get appointments with their GPs, while the GPs are threatening to go on strike. Last month, the SNP published yet another NHS recovery plan—we have now had five plans in just four years. The SNP does not know what it is doing and we have the WhatsApp messages to prove it. Only last weekend, we learned that, days before its publication, former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had described one of the many NHS recovery plans as “awful”. For once, I agree with her.
After 18 years in charge of our NHS, there is no one else left to blame—it is entirely the responsibility of the SNP. The SNP promised to recruit 800 more GPs by 2027. That is not going to be delivered—in fact, the number of GPs has actually fallen. Today, the Royal College of Nursing Scotland published its report on “The Nursing Workforce in Scotland 2025”, in which it says that there are not enough nurses to provide safe staffing levels.
The SNP promised to reduce waiting times, yet the peak of its ambition appears to be that, by March 2026, patients will be waiting only a year for treatment. Far be it from me to point out that the treatment time guarantee is supposed to be 12 weeks. In 2021, the SNP promised to create an NHS app; I looked forward to it. Four years on, that has been downgraded to a pilot in NHS Lanarkshire.
The First Minister says that we will have a renewed focus on cancer. Well, that is not before time, as his SNP Government has failed to meet the 31-day and 62-day treatment targets, in the latter case for 13 years. He has reannounced £5 million for hospices. That is great, but they have yet to see a single penny. There is no timeline, and yet again the SNP has not delivered. He boasts about child and adolescent mental health services targets being met, but that is because the figures have been fiddled, and children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or autism have been removed.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists points out that the SNP promised to invest 10 per cent of the front-line NHS budget in mental health, but it has invested only 8 per cent. Meanwhile, GP funding has fallen from 11 per cent of the health budget to 6.5 per cent. The SNP is showing us what it actually values, and it is not the NHS, nor is it social care.
Will Jackie Baillie give way?
Ms Baillie is about to conclude.
I do not have time, Mr Gray.
There is no good idea that survives the SNP. It has been in power for 18 years—if it had a good idea, it would have used it by now, but it does not, because that is the SNP: it fails to deliver, but it always succeeds in wasting our money.
I hope that this is the last programme for government that is delivered by John Swinney—and I am not the only one, because Scotland has had enough of the SNP Government. It is time for change.
I call Patrick Harvie to open on behalf of the Scottish Greens—for up to four minutes, please, Mr Harvie.
15:52
I like to begin my contributions to these debates with one positive point, so I welcome the fact that peak rail fares are gone for good. The Greens abolished them, and the SNP brought them back. We criticised that decision and the SNP derided our criticism, not just on financial grounds but by pretending that the policy had not worked. Now, peak fares are finally gone for good. I am glad that the SNP has finally accepted that the Greens were right on that issue, but people need consistent low fares if they are going to change their behaviour, not that kind of chopping and changing.
As for the rest of climate policy, the proposed heat in buildings bill has been gutted; the target to reduce car traffic has been dropped, with no alternative put in its place; rail decarbonisation has been delayed; and there has been no serious progress on emissions from agriculture.
We have seen years of inaction on anything other than green electricity production, and that is what left the 2030 target out of reach. Now, the Scottish Government seems determined to abandon any serious policy ambition on the actions that are necessary to make this year’s climate plan remotely credible.
On child poverty, we should all recognise that the Scottish child payment is one of the most important and successful policies of the devolution era, but it was possible only because the money was raised. Those of us who had, for years, made the case for progressive tax won that argument and forced the SNP to drop its no-change tax policy. That link remains—we can invest only if we raise the funds. In a profoundly unequal society, the funds are there to be found.
However, the First Minister now says that the Scottish child payment is at its limit and, worse, he is echoing right-wing rhetoric about not giving people too much in case they lose the incentive to work. That is an age-old story. For wealthy people to have an incentive to work or do anything, they have to be given vast salaries, bonuses and tax havens, but for people in poverty to have an incentive to work, they must be kept poor.
Will the member take an intervention?
If there is time in hand, Presiding Officer, I will do so.
There is very limited time, but the First Minister may make an intervention.
I will challenge Patrick Harvie’s disgusting characterisation of my comments. I want to make sure that people are supported out of poverty, but I want to enable people to access employment. The characterisation that Mr Harvie has attached to that is not worthy of his place in Parliament.
The comments that I read in the First Minister’s interview were that he was worried that, if the child payment were higher, it would “reduce the incentive” to work.
Just like the goal to end child poverty, the Scottish Government’s wider goal of investing in public services links directly to a new challenge—how to tackle the rise of the far right—which the First Minister has chosen to accept personally by hosting a summit on it. Too many centrist politicians around the world think that, to defeat the far right, we have to copy it. That has failed time and time again, and we cannot afford to repeat it.
I like to hope—and I do hope—that the Scottish Government would not go down that route if immigration were under its control. However, on social policy, I fear that it is beginning to follow that playbook. By abandoning progressive policies that once had the support of every single party in this Parliament, the SNP is now showing itself to be as much of a threat to the LGBTQ communities as the Conservatives and Labour are. As Helena Kennedy said, about the scrapping of the misogyny bill,
“We are seeing a retreat from some of these areas that are being characterised as ‘woke’”.
That is not the way to tackle the issue. We need to change the conditions of our society that give the far right its opportunity to manipulate people and spread its message.
Many participants in the First Minister’s summit challenged us all to invest in public services, housing and conditions in local communities that need to change if we are to address the real and justified alienation that dangerous forces are exploiting. Repeated comments were made at that meeting that made very clear that we can build a fairer society that will recover from 15 years of austerity only if we continue to raise the resources that are needed fairly, whether that is through local tax reform or a wealth tax. However, I am sorry to say that today’s managerial SNP Government seems to be terrified of anything that looks like the bold, ambitious change that our country needs.
I call Alex Cole-Hamilton to open on behalf of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. You have up to four minutes, Mr Cole-Hamilton.
15:57
I am pleased to speak for the Liberal Democrats on today’s programme for government. I reflect on Willie Rennie’s remarks that the chamber is almost empty. This pre-election giveaway announcement should be currying a lot more favour than it seems to be doing.
I have said many times that, before politics, I was a youth worker, and that is why I am here. I worked closely with children who lived in absolute poverty. I saw at first hand the huge impact that deprivation can have on young lives and how it too often defines their futures. The fact that so many children are being born into poverty in 2025 is a national embarrassment. The SNP has had 18 years to get this right, but we are still nowhere. The fundamental way that we get kids out of poverty is by growing Scotland’s economy.
Does Mr Cole-Hamilton think that the challenge for the SNP Government was made easier or harder by his party’s support, from 2010 to 2015, for the Conservative Government’s austerity policies?
I am grateful for the First Minister’s intervention, but he is talking about what happened 15 years ago. He cannot blame events of 15 years ago for what we are seeing today, which is the mismanagement of and failure to grow the economy.
Growing the economy is how we face the issue. The world is changing. Everything that we took for granted now feels uncertain. The free global economy is being replaced by punishing tariffs. Prices are soaring for everyday essentials and the energy and raw materials to build our homes and fuel our economy.
At the same time, the quality of the services that people rely on most is under real pressure, because those services are tied directly to how our economy performs. They include fast access to a general practitioner, a good education for our children, high-quality care for our loved ones, safe streets, reliable transport and well-maintained roads.
Without economic growth, local services decline, investment stalls and opportunities dry up. For the Scottish Liberal Democrats, building a stronger economy boils down to the key levers that I referenced in my question—boosting our skills base, reforming planning, tackling the housing crisis and rural development. Without a skilled, home-grown Scottish workforce that is ready for the industries of the future, such as defence, renewables, artificial intelligence and precision medicine, Scotland risks being left behind and those jobs going overseas.
Over the past two decades, the SNP Government has presided over the quiet death of further education, which has reduced our ability to produce the skilled workforce that Scotland needs. We need to reverse that decline, and fast.
Scotland is also actively driving away investment due to a planning regime that is ridiculously slow. In parts of Scandinavia, planning takes about seven weeks from the application to putting shovels in the ground. Here, planning applications are measured in years. A faster, simpler process that still gives a place to communities would attract investment.
Housing is inseparable from skills. If we cannot offer affordable homes, especially to key workers, we will not build the skilled workforce that Scotland urgently needs, where we need it.
Mental health must also be part of the conversation. The crisis in mental health is one of the reasons why so many people are economically inactive or unable to return to their careers, yet the Government has broken its commitment to allocate 10 per cent of NHS funding to mental health and 1 per cent to CAMHS. There is a workforce crisis in mental health, too, as well as a serious lack of provision for neurodevelopmental conditions.
There has also been a fundamental failure to help the tens of thousands of Scots who are still suffering from long Covid to get back to work.
People are tired of feeling that things are getting steadily worse and of there being little or no clear plan for how to improve them. They are demanding that we do things differently. We need change that is backed by good, competent delivery. People across Scotland see the consequences of delay and drift every day. They have waited years for action on crumbling roads and overstretched public services. In the Highlands, some communities are still waiting for the A9 and A96 to be made safe—a promise that was first made two decades ago.
There are other key areas where the Government must act now, but I am running out of time. We need a serious industrial strategy to underpin all of this—not just to attract new jobs but to make sure that they stay in Scotland.
This country has so much potential, but it needs a Government that is willing to match the ambition of the people who live here. After almost 20 years, this Government has been found wanting, and it is time for it to get out of the way.
We move to the open debate. I advise back-bench members that they have up to four minutes. There is no time in hand and, if members wish to accept interventions, those must be absorbed within their agreed allocated speaking time.
16:02
It can be easy to get caught up in the doom and gloom of politics, especially given the current international situation. As easy as it is to get frustrated with what is not happening, we have to remember what is happening and what has happened.
There is a lot that SNP MSPs can feel proud of. The best start grant, Scottish child payment and baby box are all working to tackle child poverty and to ensure that every baby and parent in Scotland has the essentials that they need. Free prescriptions, eye appointments and dental care for certain groups mean that people do not have to choose between paying their bills and taking care of their basic health.
Movement during this parliamentary session to get on top of the out-of-control situation with second homes and short-term let properties in many areas, including a lot of the areas that I represent in the Highlands and Islands, has been incredibly positive. Those policies have not just provided extra revenue for local authorities; they have encouraged properties to be returned to the housing market.
There is work to be done to convince people of the merit of doing things the right way, not by resorting to reactionary rhetoric, blame culture or monstering minority groups but instead, with a positive message, by delivering public services that benefit everyone in Scotland. It is important that we practise what we preach. We cannot one day criticise the rise of the far right and then the next day allow that same group to dictate our principles and policy, as the UK Labour Party is doing. It positions itself as an alternative to the Conservatives, but it is now adopting right-wing policies, sharing negative lines on migration and turning its back on the most marginalised by taking money out of the household budgets of disabled people and pensioners.
We cannot afford to let Nigel Farage and his campaigns of disinformation and despair win in Scotland. I can understand people feeling helpless and that something radical is needed to shake up politics and redirect power in favour of ordinary people. However, we need to be clear that the route to doing that is independence.
Fifteen years of Tory Government, initiated by the Lib Dems, have wrecked our economy, increased poverty and harmed countless people. They have brought us Brexit, depopulation and a raft of policies that were aimed at doing nothing but discrediting and diminishing devolved Parliaments.
Last year, UK Labour got in at Westminster and disappointed us again when it picked up the dehumanising brutal cuts and reforms to disability benefits that the Conservatives had started, and managed to break almost as many promises as it had made in the election campaign. Farage is no friend to Scotland, either. A far-right Government will serve no one but the people who, temporarily, sit around our boardroom tables. We cannot win with Westminster.
I am sad not to see a ban on conversion practices included in the programme for government, but I hope to see progress made on that issue over the next year. In my time as Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees, I met not only survivors of such practices but providers who were determined to be allowed to continue them. It is painful to think that those providers are out there now, causing more of the harm that was described to the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee.
I know that we can do better, and I am proud of the progress that we have made, but—both after independence and before it—there will be more to do if we are to become the successful, fair and socially just country described in the vision that brought me into politics in 2014. To prove that we can do better, we really need to do better where we can now, keep our promises and show everyone in Scotland that it is possible to deliver on priorities without excluding any group in society, whether they be disabled people, LGBTQ+ people or those living outwith the central belt.
We must deliver infrastructure projects in the north and the south, acknowledge and meet the need for greater financial support for households that include disabled people, and ensure that islanders and rural residents have the same healthcare outcomes as someone in the middle of the city. Taking such action will convince people that we can do more than mitigate—that we can eradicate poverty and demonstrate that an independent Scotland is a better Scotland.
16:06
I remind members of my entry in the register of members’ interests in that I am a small farmer.
It is a little over a year since I entered the Parliament. In that time I have heard a lot of grandstanding from two First Ministers and their colleagues about their records in government. Despite their cries of success, I see so much in our public services in Scotland that is deeply concerning.
Just this week, we saw another critical headline in The Scottish Farmer as beef sector organisations
“launched a stinging attack on the Scottish Government over ... a ‘lack of any meaningful intervention and policy direction ...’ to support the national beef herd.”
That is one of a series of headlines that have provided a damning indictment of this Government’s approach and attitude to farming, crofting, fisheries and the wider rural sector.
The rural affairs portfolio was the only one that saw a real-terms cut in the last Scottish budget. Some £100 million of money that had been earmarked for rural homes was redirected to build homes in Edinburgh and Aberdeen. The new ferries earmarked for Islay have faced fresh delays, and the costs for the two new vessels from the Ferguson Marine shipyard continue to spiral out of control. All the while, rural communities suffer with increasing ferry breakdowns and cancellations. Rural roads remain a major issue. Today, a brilliant piece in The Herald has eviscerated the Government over its abysmal failure to deliver a long-term solution to the problems on the A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful. Let us just be honest: road projects such as those on the A83 and the A96 will never be delivered under an SNP Government.
Residents across rural Scotland continue to face challenges accessing health and social care services. In Dunoon and Campbeltown, residents are unable to register with an NHS dentist; on the island of Barra, plans for a new hospital have been paused indefinitely; and local people have had to campaign just to get basic services at Dr Gray’s hospital in Elgin.
Will the member join me in welcoming the two new hospitals that have been delivered on Skye and in Aviemore, which are open right now?
I am delighted to welcome them, but what about the other ones? What about all the people who still cannot access the services that they need in rural communities across Scotland? They are the ones who really matter. We cannot just take action for some people and do nothing for others.
Will the member take an intervention?
I probably need to make a wee bit of progress—I am sorry.
The SNP promised to deliver a crofting bill this year, yet, despite that being spoken about in 2016, it has failed to publish a bill. The SNP pledged £25 million to provide new homes for key workers in rural and island communities. Instead, it has delivered just 17 homes. There has been failure after failure on policies for rural communities across Scotland.
I will make a couple of points to the member. First, a bill on crofting is on its way—it is being drafted as we speak. Secondly, it was the Tory Government that introduced a policy that absolutely crashed the farming economy in England, while the SNP Government continued to provide direct support here, in Scotland. We have a stable industry in Scotland, while the English one absolutely fell apart—
I think that Mr Eagle has got the gist. Mr Eagle, I remind you that you have only up to four minutes.
I am quickly going to run out of time. I do not know whether I will be able to come back to Jim Fairlie on that in detail, but I say to him that the SNP has not delivered anything for agriculture in Scotland. That is the fundamental problem, is it not?
The First Minister is talking a lot—
Will the member give way?
I have not got time, I am afraid.
Mr Eagle is in his final minute.
Today, the First Minister has been talking a lot about the rural support plan, which is yet to come. We have been waiting for it for more than a year. SNP members speak about the world-leading Scottish fishing sector, yet it was the Scottish Conservatives who brought the debate on fishing after two years of waiting on the Government. They talk about new entrants being vital to farming, yet they have not delivered anything for new entrants in farming for 15 years.
If I believed that the SNP had done something positive, I would like to think that I would say so, but it has not. The SNP wants to focus on fringe issues that rip Scotland apart. The Scottish Conservatives want to focus on a new vision for Scotland—one that is about common sense, shared values, bringing down bills, raising standards and delivering better value for money. That would be a programme for government that would deliver for rural Scotland. [Interruption.] Today is yet more rhetoric—we are still hearing it now—and nothing new from an out-of-touch, out-of-ideas and out-of-time Government.
16:10
Mr Eagle mentioned fringe issues. I will not be mentioning any of those today, because I do not have a fringe.
This programme for government is laser-focused on delivering for the people of Scotland through our mission to build a healthier, wealthier and fairer country. The programme is anchored by the clear objectives of eradicating child poverty, stimulating economic growth, improving our public services and delivering a just transition to net zero. I want to focus on some of those areas, although four minutes is not long.
I will start with child poverty. The Scottish child payment supports more than 326,000 children, with more than £1 billion having been put directly into the hands of families since 2021. Now, the Scottish Government has committed to go further, lifting another 15,000 children out of poverty in 2026 by mitigating the impact of Westminster’s two-child limit in Scotland. If only the Westminster Government did the right thing and abolished that two-child limit at source—at the Westminster level.
The cost of living is obviously a real worry for many households throughout our country. I am pleased to see that that has been taken cognisance of, with peak rail fares being scrapped for good and with the Government’s pledge to reintroduce the winter fuel payment. I will not list all the other benefits that the First Minister told us about today that people in Scotland get but those south of the border do not.
However, in order to pay for some of those things, we have to have an economy that works. I pay tribute to the Government for looking at the economy very closely and for coming up with the six-point export plan, the proof of concept fund and the just transition moneys to create a green industrial future.
The First Minister was right: we need the Acorn carbon capture project. I am pleased that the Scottish Government put its money where its mouth is. It is time for Ed Miliband to do exactly the same and provide the resourcing for Acorn. I am also very pleased to see £10 million of funding for the advancement of hydrogen technologies, which are our future.
Finally, I turn to the NHS, because it is one of the most important things for our citizens. I welcome the commitment to tackle the 8 am lottery and to increase capacity by 100,000 additional GP appointments. That will be welcomed right across our country.
Today’s programme for government is a milestone. It will move us forward towards creating a healthier, wealthier and fairer Scotland—one that is fairer for all.
I call Sarah Boyack. You have up to four minutes, Ms Boyack.
16:14
I start by drawing members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests.
The SNP has now been in power for 18 years, and my constituents are being failed every day, whether that is failures in the NHS or the deepening housing emergency in Edinburgh. It is unacceptable that the First Minister was in complete denial about the housing emergency when we have 10,000 children who are homeless, as Mark Griffin pointed out.
We are also seeing a lack of action on the climate emergency. We need more investment to support the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to tackle forest fires, and we need to support people to make their homes energy efficient and affordable. There is a lack of support for solar panels, there has not been action to fix the incredibly complicated process to enable people to get new heating options and there is a lack of action on affordable heat networks. Those failures are bad for people’s health and wellbeing. Those repeated failures to tackle the climate emergency mean that we are missing out on the thousands of green jobs that could be created right across our communities.
We have particular problems in the Lothians. Jackie Baillie made a powerful speech about the Scottish Government’s failures in the NHS. The Lothians will have 84 per cent of Scotland’s population growth over the next five years but NHS Lothian and the councils are underfunded. The integration joint board cuts that are being made now mean that essential services that keep people healthy are under threat. I raised that issue during oral questions last week and I got a disappointing answer from the minister. Our councils provided core funding for third sector groups, but really important services are now under threat, with services being reduced by £100 million in value in the past three years, partly through underfunding and partly because of unfunded increases in demand. Those services are not nice to have; they are essential in keeping people healthy.
Yesterday, I visited the Scottish Action for Mental Health Redhall walled garden, a therapeutic horticultural project for people who are struggling with mental health problems. It is now at risk of closure because there are plans to cancel the contract due to cuts in Government funding. That leaves highly vulnerable constituents with nowhere to turn, some of whom have been on waiting lists for referrals for well over a year. That will cost us all, because, if people’s mental health deteriorates, they will not be able to work. I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to acknowledge those challenges and to commit to working with NHS Lothian and the City of Edinburgh Council so that those essential services, which people rely on, are not lost.
We are not seeing the approach of investing in prevention that was highlighted by the Christie commission, and we are not getting the joined-up thinking that our constituents urgently need and deserve. That is really what motivates my member’s bill—the Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill. The issue is about more than public health; it is also about the climate emergency. The failure to act has left Scotland repeatedly missing our climate targets. Disruption to plans in relation to heat in buildings has affected supply chains and caused a lack of confidence among those who could be recruiting, expanding and investing in infrastructure to deliver the jobs right across Scotland that our communities urgently need.
The First Minister highlighted Grangemouth, but, as we argued last week, people knew for years that action was needed to save the jobs in that refinery. We need to learn lessons from other countries and deliver the jobs that are now highlighted in the willow review.
Will the member take an intervention?
I will, briefly, yes.
No, the member is concluding. You had only four minutes, Ms Boyack.
Okay.
I welcome the action on Labour’s call for the abolition of peak rail fares, but we need joined-up transport planning and delivery for trains and buses, and we are not getting it. There are new homes in places such as Winchburgh, which should have had a railway station, for example, so if we do not get that joined-up planning, we are not getting the action that people urgently need after 18 years of failure. It is simply not good enough.
16:18
The ambitious but focused scope of today’s programme for government is very welcome, given that, yet again, it is drawn together in the most difficult of times, as the UK Government chooses an austerity agenda that continues to limit Scottish Government actions and the fiscal context in which it operates. As the UK Labour Government continues to embrace the folly of Brexit, I welcome this programme for government, which centres on economic growth, tackling child poverty, improving public services and delivering on net zero. The climate crisis is very real.
Scotland hosts an abundance of small and medium-sized businesses, including in the energy sector. They support well-paid jobs and play a fundamental role in the wellbeing of communities.
The Scottish Government’s renewed focus on the economy over the past year or so has been very much welcomed across the energy industry. The fact that the current global environment for trade is challenging, not least because of US tariffs, makes it all the more important that our domestic policy gets it right for our businesses.
The UK Government’s decision to increase employer national insurance contributions has increased the tax burden on businesses, with a disproportionate and hugely damaging effect on the most labour-intensive sectors. I welcome the First Minister’s update on supporting our food and drink sector and the development of a new six-point export plan to support exporters to diversify and grow their markets.
Fundamental to the success of our businesses is having a skilled workforce. In the energy transition ecosystem, the long-term sustainability of our workforce is crucial to securing investor confidence and continuing to develop the next-generation clean energy technology that is already globally recognised and delivering on many of the Scottish Government’s policy priorities. PwC’s latest green jobs barometer shows that Scotland has the highest proportion of green job adverts in all UK nations and regions, with the size of the green jobs market in Scotland having tripled since 2021.
The north-east is already home to an incredible range of start-ups and technologies that have been successfully commercialised. I know that there is an appetite to tie in a new accelerator programme in the north-east to the national strategy for economic transformation. I gently put that on the Deputy First Minister’s radar as part of a programme for government going forward.
The skills of our existing talented oil and gas workforce are transferable and mobile, so it is crucial that we harness them here, in Scotland, to scale up our offshore wind sector. I very much welcome the creation of a new £2.9 million proof-of-concept fund to support the commercialisation of research projects with significant economic potential and an improved ecosystem fund to support the start-up environment. That is highly relevant to the north-east and the wider Scottish economy.
I particularly welcome the removal of peak rail fares. That is an excellent announcement, and I welcome this afternoon’s debate on increased Scottish Government funding, should the Acorn project get the go-ahead. I join the Scottish Government, business leaders and colleagues in calling on the UK Government to support Acorn without delay.
16:22
Well, here we are, a year from the Scottish Parliament election and, rather than the Government coming to the Parliament to offer a bold vision for an economic, prosperous Scotland, we once again have an SNP First Minister who is standing on a history of broken promises and economic decline, on a record of failure and missed targets and on a background of decline in education and health coming to the chamber with a programme for government that demonstrates just how out of ideas and out of time the devolved SNP Government is.
Industries the length and breadth of the country are crying out for innovation and bold policies when it comes to a just transition and energy security. In the north-east, we know how hard those in our oil and gas sector have worked to ensure that oil and gas production in Scotland is world leading, ethical and green, providing vital resources for our economic wellbeing. Instead, the SNP Government continues with a presumption against new oil and gas and is determined to close off that vital resource to our country’s energy needs. The Government remains opposed to small nuclear developments close to where energy is needed and central to achieving our net zero ambitions.
Will the member take an intervention?
If I have time, I will come back to the Deputy First Minister.
Despite all the science and all the experts telling them what a vital contribution small nuclear can make to the resilience of our energy production, ministers remain luddites when it comes to nuclear.
The energy strategy is years late, and there is no sign of it in the programme for government. We all know why that is: it is because the SNP is a divided party on the subject. It is trying to satisfy its members who understand that jobs and wealth that are created by the oil and gas industry can provide an economic boost to Scotland and pay for our public services, while the other half of its members want to cosy up to the extremist Greens, throwing tens of thousands of jobs under the bus.
Communities from the south to the north are desperately asking the Scottish Government to listen to their concerns on energy infrastructure. For the good of our incredible countryside, I plead with the SNP Government not to carpet bomb our rural communities with monster pylons, substations and battery storage facilities. The devolved Government needs to press the pause button until we have an energy strategy, so that we can have the right development in the right place.
Instead of the SNP using this programme for government to set out a commonsense approach to energy production and infrastructure in Scotland, we are getting the same old nonsense from the SNP. When it comes to Acorn, does the First Minister think that people in the north-east zip up the back, promising a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow when his Government has failed to spend a penny of the £80 million cash from 2022? The First Minister even popped up to St Fergus last year to announce another £2 million, which seems to be all that the SNP has left in that fund.
The Scottish Conservatives offer a way forward that is based on common sense. If we are still using oil and gas, let us use the resources that we have instead of importing them from abroad. If we have a good renewables industry, let us work with it to innovate and move forward. Given that we have a thriving agricultural sector, let us build it up and not impose unfair taxes on it, as the Labour UK Government has done.
The Scottish Conservatives will work with the Scottish people towards economic growth and prosperity for all and will not sacrifice economic growth on the altar of independence. This is a Government that is out of time and out of ideas. The programme for government shines a light on the failure of the past 18 years and on the history of failed promises and broken commitments.
16:26
It is a privilege to speak on behalf of Scottish Labour on the programme for government and to follow Douglas Lumsden, who I note, with the greatest kindness to him, is never knowingly undermetaphored.
Douglas Lumsden talked about the importance of nuclear power, which allows me to make mention of it. We have already talked about Grangemouth and the decisions that, if taken five years ago, might have made the situation today very different. Torness in East Lothian has but five years on its current licence to produce energy, so it will be interesting to see the intervention from the current SNP Government with the warning of five years to go.
I welcome the First Minister’s focus in the statement that was the precursor to this debate on seeking solutions rather than disagreements. The challenge for the Government is that the solutions that it has previously promised have virtually all failed to be delivered. However, as other members have done, I welcome the ending of the 8 am lottery and the abolition of peak rail fares. It is important that we start to see an improvement in our NHS rather than an on-going decline, and it is important, with regard to the abolition of peak rail fares, which has been welcomed by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, that we get people back on to the trains.
However, if we look at some of the Government’s previous promises, we see that there are challenges that it has to face. Avoiding facing up to those would mean that the promises that have been made in this programme for government will fall again and fail. There are only six bills as we go into the final year of the parliamentary session, plus two bills from year 4 of the session that will be brought forward.
One of those bills, which has already been mentioned in the debate, is on non-surgical cosmetic procedures. I very much welcome that. I strongly suggest that the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill comes back to the Parliament for stage 3 consideration before summer recess to make space for the cosmetic procedures bill, so that it is not lost as we move to the tail end of this parliamentary session.
In the short time that I have, I will go back over some of the Government’s previous promises, assurances and solutions. Scrapping the council tax for under-22s—we have to go back to the SNP’s 2021 manifesto for that—does not seem to have been delivered. The young persons guarantee in that manifesto promised to
“Fund the ... university, college, apprenticeship”—
the skills needs that we have heard so much about this afternoon—
“training place or job for every young person”,
yet we have 84,000 young people not in education, employment or training.
A number of members have mentioned CAMHS. I welcome the Government’s constant heralding of the fact that it now hits its CAMHS targets, but is that not at the price of entirely removing a significantly large number of children from those waiting lists and sending them to other pathways that do not yet exist? There has been a failure to invest the 10 per cent that has been promised for mental health, with only 8 per cent invested so far. Indeed, in March, NHS Tayside calculated that it would take a decade before those being added to the CAMHS waiting list today could be seen. We are talking about young people and children, who currently face a waiting time of six years.
In 2018, the SNP’s then First Minister met Jamie Oliver and said that the childhood obesity rate would be halved by 2030, reducing it to 7 per cent, but it now stands at 17 per cent.
I could talk about four more pages of broken promises relating to our young people, but I will leave it there.
16:30
For completeness, and regarding Martin Whitfield’s comments about the five bills to be introduced, two bills are still to be introduced during this session of Parliament, in addition to the 14 bills already in the parliamentary process, which highlights how busy Parliament will be over the next year.
My request was to move the care bill forward so that there could be space for those new bills to be completed along with the others. Would the member welcome that?
Thank you.
I am pleased to speak in this debate, following the First Minister’s setting out of his clear vision for our country and for those who live here. I will focus most of my contribution on an issue that was first raised with me in 2018 by one of my constituents, Jill Best, a nurse who has worked in medical aesthetics since 2010. At the time, I was surprised to learn that injectable treatments that used prescription-only medicines were being offered without any regulatory framework, which is why I am really delighted by the announcement that the Scottish Government will legislate in that area.
The introduction of the bill on non-surgical cosmetic procedures will be welcomed by many people across the country, and I know that it has cross-party support. We have just heard from Martin Whitfield, and I know that Miles Briggs, Roz McCall and my colleague Colin Beattie have also all been involved in supporting that particular campaign. I also thank Jenni Minto, the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health, for meeting and listening to campaigners from the sector and for helping to get the bill into the programme for government.
The bill will help to deliver a non-surgical cosmetic sector that will be safer for all clients living in Scotland. The industry has grown significantly since my first discussion with Jill Best, but the lack of regulation leaves the authorities uncertain about the actual size of the industry in Scotland. That is why regulation is critical not only for improving patient safety but for giving an insight into the number of businesses offering those treatments at the moment.
Having recognised those concerns, I wrote repeatedly to the Scottish Government, highlighting Jill’s worries and emphasising the need for action. The non-surgical cosmetic sector is here is to stay and will continue expanding, which makes legislation absolutely imperative. We have all heard reports of botched procedures; we have read the papers and seen the online news items. Those reports, including those of tragic, fatal cases, have fuelled concerns about unqualified practitioners, whose existence is deeply concerning. There is a risk that patients will be misled into thinking that the sector is currently totally safe, when there are individuals who are operating without being properly qualified.
I will touch on a couple of other aspects of the programme for government. I was struck by the contrast between politics in Scotland and in the rest of the UK. Our First Minister reiterated his commitment to eradicating child poverty while growing the economy, investing in public services and tackling the climate emergency. Prior to July 2024, the UK had a Government that actively worked against those priorities and there is now a Labour Government at Westminster that has failed to deliver on its election promises.
I remember that Mr Sarwar assured the nation,
“Read my lips: no austerity under Labour.”
His silence now is deafening. The fact that the Welsh Labour First Minister is calling out her UK Labour Government colleagues speaks volumes.
I welcome the programme for government, and I look forward to working with colleagues across the chamber as the bills proceed through the Parliament.
We move to the winding-up speeches.
16:35
The health announcements in the programme for government are small snippets of NHS reform and, as a whole, they do not deliver the wide-scale change that is needed in how we use the health service and treat ill health. The national conversation that was previously suggested seems to have disappeared.
There are good moves, such as the Government’s recognition that we must vastly increase the number of people who are seen in the community at an earlier point. However, I have some real concerns, as does the Royal College of General Practitioners, about the timescale for and sustainability of the proposal. Increasing the number of GP appointments is a laudable goal but, given our current GP workforce and the pressures that they face, a focus on quantity alone risks backfiring. Patients and GPs alike value quality of care, yet the programme for government remains silent on that.
Beyond the 100,000 enhanced service GP appointments for those with key risk factors, how many more people are going to see their GP? Will all the proposed enhanced appointments require a GP? Blood pressure monitoring is often carried out by practice nurses. Diverting that to GPs will reduce GP capacity rather than increase it. What is an enhanced service GP appointment in the first place?
Training and retaining more GPs has to be a core part of any expansion in primary care, and that requires more money across the board. Although enhanced or more regular appointments for certain health conditions may be a good idea, there is nothing in the programme for government to improve and protect the health of the nation, which is key to keeping people well and preventing the need for some of those appointments in the first place.
The launch of an initial version of a health and social care app could be a huge step forward. There are already examples—good and bad—of digital interaction with patients to learn from. I believe that the Badger Notes app for maternity care would be a good place from which to start pinching ideas. It allows patients to see appointments, blood tests and blood pressure monitoring and it enables them to message their midwives, who often reply the same day. For those with long-term conditions such as diabetes, the ability to input blood glucose levels for review by a clinician would prevent some out-patient appointments from being needed, saving individuals from travelling to hospital for review, as well as freeing up appointment times. That is just one example. I hope that those things are being taken into account in order to improve efficiency.
Although it is not mentioned in the programme for government, I hope that the proposal for an app implies that we will see a single health record, at the very least to underpin the app. The Scottish Greens have called for that for a long time.
The expansion of the pharmacy first service is hugely welcome. I hope that it will include work that responds to my call earlier in the year, and that of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, to increase the patient information that pharmacists can have, which would enable the full potential of pharmacy first to be realised.
Although the test to prevent secondary stroke is a good step forward, there are other treatments that we should be funding, too. The transformational potential of thrombectomy to prevent and reduce disablement after a stroke cannot be overstated. Currently, we have a mostly Monday-to-Friday, 9-to-5 service, and people have to be lucky enough to have their stroke during working hours. Not enhancing that service is costing both money and people’s health.
The additional funding for mental health services reverses previous cuts, but we also have a looming crisis with the lack of pathways for those who are looking for an autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnosis. I note that the Government believes that we should be providing people with the support that they need regardless of whether they have a diagnosis. Although we should be striving for that, we cannot rely on all workplaces or learning environments to take that approach without a diagnosis. Beyond that, we should never underestimate the validation and relief that a diagnosis provides for individuals. I appreciate that a waiting list for those with severe and enduring mental health conditions may not be the right place for people who are looking for such a diagnosis, but a pathway is clearly needed.
I have rapidly run out of time. I would have liked to have touched on a good few other issues including the work that needs to go on in Grangemouth to secure the future of industry, the lack of any mention in the programme for government of improving terms and conditions for social care workers, and the very welcome scrapping of peak rail fares. We have to see the Government turn those promises into tangible achievements with the impacts that Scotland needs.
16:39
Today’s slimmed-down programme for government has to be compared with the long list of broken promises that defines the SNP Government. Let us imagine for a few moments the path not travelled: the imaginary Scotland in which a child—little Jimmy—cycles to school on his free bike, a free laptop in his bag, passing the newly refurbished play park, finishing a can of Irn Bru and promptly returning it to the reverse vending machine, from which he claims his 20p. Little Jimmy does not need to worry if he falls off his bike and breaks his leg; he will be immediately whisked to one of Scotland’s national treatment centres in an ambulance that was requested on the NHS app.
His family are off on holiday in the summer, zooming up Scotland’s premier road—the long-since dualled A9—then heading west to catch one of Scotland’s many reliable ferries, which have real and absolutely not painted-on windows. After the holidays, Jimmy looks forward to receiving his exam certificate from the exam board, which is, of course, entirely different from the Scottish Qualifications Authority, because education secretary John Swinney meant what he said when he scrapped the body that he had told to cut the grades of the poorest kids.
Craig Hoy rose—
No, thank you, Mr Hoy.
After school, Jimmy looks forward to a career in the Saudi Arabia of renewables, with a reformed national skills programme supporting him in his ambition. When he buys his own home, the hated council tax is but a distant memory, because it was scrapped by Alex Salmond and John Swinney as far back as 2007. Of course, in the far future of old age, Jimmy rests secure in the knowledge that the national care service will be there to look after him.
That is the path not travelled, Presiding Officer. Instead, we are back in the real world, in which none of that is true and none of it was delivered, and in which the First Minister entreats us to believe that a corner is being turned, albeit that he is the one who has been leading us down that road for 18 years.
Of course, the right question is why a corner needs turning. The answer is in the Government’s record. Every inch of that long record is John Swinney’s, and it is not addressed by this limp and lukewarm excuse for a programme for government.
Jackie Baillie set out just some of that record of SNP failure that has laid low our NHS. Martin Whitfield highlighted the record on CAMHS and the fiddling of the figures on waiting lists. I met NHS Tayside on Friday, and can absolutely confirm that, in my area, the situation is a complete mess. A new pathway is now being developed to take the kids back into CAMHS, with 4,500 children in Dundee having been thrown aside. The First Minister has spoken to some GPs and so have I: yesterday, a Dundee GP called it a disaster and a disgrace—no wonder. GPs are clear that the SNP’s closure of 25 per cent of the surgeries in Dundee and the fact that the patient list has increased by 37 per cent is creating a crisis in general practice.
There have been five NHS plans in four years. In public, the SNP Government says that those work but, in private, it acknowledges that they are—in the words of the former First Minister—“awful”. That is the right word. It well describes the SNP attitude to public money. The SNP has wasted £6 billion of taxpayers’ money on ferries that do not sail, the scandal of delayed discharge and a national care service that will not deliver a single extra carer.
I will conclude—do I have four minutes or six, Presiding Officer?
Six.
I will keep going, then. There is plenty more of this to come.
On all those issues, the Government has refused to listen to the repeated warnings from the Auditor General, the Scottish Fiscal Commission, the Fraser of Allander Institute, the Finance and Public Administration Committee and the Institute for Fiscal Studies about the grave threat that is faced by Scotland’s public finances.
Today, the First Minister announced yet another Labour policy: the scrapping of peak rail fares. He whipped his SNP MSPs to vote against such a policy just last year. Email correspondence that was released under freedom of information shows that, last August, his own Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, Shona Robison, advised that the Government
“simply can’t afford this given the financial position.”
What changed that situation was £5.2 billion of money from the Labour Government.
Will Michael Marra give way?
Gladly.
Mr Marra has said that the SNP Government has stolen Labour policies. The Scottish public will be thankful that we have not stolen the policies of keeping the two-child benefit cap, slashing winter fuel payments for our pensioners or cutting benefits to disabled people.
It is fair to say that, given the challenging financial circumstances, the additional £5.2 billion that the UK Labour Government brought to the Scottish Government’s budget is what has enabled some of those new policies in today’s programme for government. [Interruption.] I know that all SNP members will welcome that.
Will the member give way?
No, thank you. I am sure that Mr Gray will welcome—[Interruption.]
Mr Marra, could you resume your seat.
I encourage the Government front bench to respond to the debate in due course, which I will give them the opportunity to do. Members do not need to pass a running commentary on Mr Marra’s contribution.
With 20 per cent of the parliamentary term left to run, this is a case of the SNP clearing the decks for an election, rather than a case of setting up the country for success.
In his response to Mark Griffin earlier, John Swinney let the cat out of the bag somewhat. When we were focusing on the issue of homeless children in Scotland, he said that we should
“move on and find something else to talk about or to moan about”.
The Labour Party will not do that—and we will see you at the ballot box.
16:46
I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests: I am a practising general practitioner.
As a GP, I know what it means to deliver care under pressure. The pressure that we face today is not a passing crisis, but the result of 18 years of SNP mismanagement. Scotland’s health is deteriorating. Waiting lists are longer, GP and mental health access is harder, and our NHS staff are stretched beyond reason. The so-called 8 am GP lottery is just one symptom of a broken system. John Swinney says that he will fix it but, based on his record, we know what that probably means: 9 am lotteries, more excuses, more blame and no accountability.
This is not just an NHS problem. The illness runs deeper: in education, where the attainment gap persists and the curriculum fails our young people; in transport, where projects are delayed, over budget and unreliable; and in the economy, where small businesses are stifled by red tape and uncertainty. Everything that this Government touches ends up weaker, sicker and more fragile. This programme for government should have been a treatment plan—focused, urgent and effective. Instead, it is the same tired prescription of central control, poor planning and even worse delivery.
When it comes to SNP outcomes, it is Scotland that suffers. Rachael Hamilton told us that, after 18 years, this SNP Government is out of ideas. The SNP grandstands with laudable targets but never achieves them, never delivers and never has a clue how to achieve its targets. Multiple members have told us that the war on car drivers continues. We have higher parking fees in my city of Glasgow, imposed by the SNP, more potholes and no progress on fully dualling the A9, which is yet another broken promise.
I agree with Jackie Baillie, who said that the RCN has said that there are not enough nurses to deliver safe care. Imagine that—not enough nurses to deliver safe care. The SNP has fiddled CAMHS figures, and SNP members have talked about the issue with such pride. Tim Eagle spoke of how the rural budget has been cut. Rural housing funding went to Edinburgh to build Edinburgh housing. There is no crofting bill yet, meaning failure after failure after failure for the people of rural Scotland.
Douglas Lumsden reminded us that the SNP is devastating the north-east of our country by destroying our oil and gas industry. We need an affordable transition, and the Scottish Government is not being honest with Scots about the fact that the average person will be paying for the SNP’s failed transition.
Our NHS is on life support. Patients wait longer, staff are exhausted, and services are crumbling under pressure. We know that that is not new—it is the result of 18 years of SNP failure. Now, the First Minister heralds a year of delivery—what staggering self-delusion.
We have all seen SNP plans before, including Humza Yousaf’s shameful, flimsy NHS recovery plan, which was supported by John Swinney and the entire SNP front bench. At the time, we called it out as being useless and not fit for purpose. We now discover that the then First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, agreed with us and said on WhatsApp:
“I’m reading a revised draft of the recovery plan and still feeling need to translate parts of into acceptable English—and that is before I reach any substance.”
She went on to say:
“My specific concern is that it’s awful”.
John Swinney stood up and clapped that recovery plan. Where was John Swinney when it came to improving our NHS then? He was at the heart of Government, destroying the NHS.
The programme for government is hypocrisy on steroids. The WhatsApp messages about this statement are likely to make for wonderful reading in the future.
Ultimately, that is the SNP in a nutshell: there is floundering, incompetence and infighting, and then half-baked ideas are foisted on the people of Scotland. Meanwhile, waiting lists grow, staff morale plummets, and the public pay the price.
This is not just the situation in health; it is the same story in education, transport and the economy. We have a Government that overpromises, underdelivers and never takes responsibility. In fact, on BBC Scotland’s “Debate Night”, Fulton MacGregor spoke about how the Government is as honest as it can be.
The SNP’s record is not one of government; it is one of managed decline. Scotland deserves so much better. We do not need another year of slogans; we need competence, urgency and leadership that puts people before party.
I call Neil Gray to wind up the debate.
16:51
I thank members for their contributions.
There has been a bit of a theme in the debate. Those MSPs who got something through the budget to make progress on and who supported the budget contributed constructively to the debate, while those who did not banged tables, shouted loudly and, in the end, offered absolutely nothing—they offered no ideas or policies for making progress in Scotland. There was an honourable exception. The first half of Martin Whitfield’s speech was constructive, until he gave in to temptation and reverted to type in the second half.
Members have made reference to a number of the proposed new bills. Does Neil Gray agree that we also have a number of bills that we need to shift? It is not a backlog but a logjam. Will we see the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill brought back before the summer?
We want to make progress, for the reasons that Martin Whitfield set out. I have an interest in that regard. The scheduling of those bills will be brought forward as quickly as possible.
Jackie Baillie, in her conclusion, asked what the SNP’s priorities are. I can tell her that they are record funding for the NHS; delivering for people who are accessing health services; delivering high-quality public services; eradicating child poverty; boosting the economy; and delivering on the climate emergency commitments.
Meanwhile, the Labour UK Government is projected to increase child poverty, has stifled the economy with the tax on jobs through increased employer national insurance contributions and has let energy bills increase when it promised to reduce them. It has also abandoned the women against state pension inequality—the WASPI women. Labour’s failure in Government has opened the door to Farage, and it should be ashamed.
Members raised a number of other issues, but I will not be able to turn to all of them. Patrick Harvie referenced the peak rail fares removal pilot and supporting that in the spirit of consensus. He needs to be reminded that the pilot was extended after the Greens left the Government, and that we extended the pilot for a second time in the summer of 2024, as opposed to while the Greens were in government.
There are a number of very good contributions to reflect on. Emma Roddick delivered a thoughtful contribution on how we counteract the rise of Nigel Farage and the opportunity that is open to us through independence. I will take away Sarah Boyack’s point regarding the linkage between mental health and economic inactivity. We are incredibly cognisant of that point, and it is something that we are delivering against, including in Lothian, where we understand that there are specific challenges.
I see that Joe FitzPatrick is seeking to intervene remotely. I will take his intervention.
We are not hearing you, Mr FitzPatrick. I invite the cabinet secretary to continue.
Kevin Stewart focused on the health service, Audrey Nicoll spoke about energy and the economy, and Stuart McMillan spoke about his work regarding non-surgical cosmetic procedures while also addressing the fact that that has been a cross-party effort.
On the health service, one point that has not been brought up very much is the expansion of pharmacy first, which I am very much in favour of. Can the cabinet secretary give us his assurance that pharmacists will help to come up with the details of that expansion to benefit folk across the country?
Yes—pharmacists and others across the primary care sector are fundamental to the future success and sustainability of the health service, and I am happy to give that confirmation.
Also on a health theme, Gillian Mackay made a series of constructive health-related asks, some of which we are progressing. I would be more than happy to pick up on them and discuss them at our next meeting.
We understand the challenges the people are facing and the issues that families are dealing with. Turbulent times globally have seen costs rise, and the impacts of those rises pose risks for everyday life.
Decisions of Westminster Governments have not just worsened the cost of living challenges that the people of Scottish are facing; in many cases, it is the decisions of Westminster Governments that have caused the challenges, because Scotland is an afterthought for those Governments.
From Brexit to rising energy bills and austerity in the form of cuts to winter fuel payments for our pensioners, it is our people who have suffered. Only when it starts to cost Labour at the ballot box—only when the pain threatens its own power, not when the pain is felt by pensioners—does the party brief that it will consider its position. It is so disappointing to see that from a Labour Government—from a Labour Government, Presiding Officer. It is in the face of that situation that we have set out a clear, focused agenda to deliver for people and communities right across the country.
This programme for government not only sets out what we will do to achieve our key priorities over the coming year but underlines our many strengths and the many successes that have been delivered. Although child poverty levels remain high, we are making progress. We are investing in early learning and childcare, in housing and in measures such as the Scottish child payment. Those investments will support families to escape poverty. Child poverty levels in Scotland are falling at a time when they are rising in other parts of the country.
In this programme for government, we are ensuring that businesses are in the best possible place to create jobs and grow the economy. A strong, dynamic and growing economy will support measures to invest in our public services and to eradicate poverty.
Our devolved employability programmes have supported tens of thousands of people to enter—and to progress in—work. Scotland has a track record of success when it comes to attracting investment, and we consistently outperform other parts of the UK. However, we are not resting on our laurels. That is why we are accelerating a targeted programme of key engagements on key investment. Scotland is, and will continue to be, a globally facing country—one that is open for business.
In our programme for government, we have set out a clear, focused agenda to deliver—to deliver for the people of Scotland and, as I have set out, to deliver for the whole of Scotland. This is a programme for government that is focused on hope and delivery. It is a programme that shows that the Government understands the reality of the headwinds that people are facing and that we are taking action.
We are seeing progress in our health service: accident and emergency waits are down; delayed discharge is down; and more procedures are being delivered. There is much more for us to do, but we are making progress.
Labour and the Tories cannot stand that, because, while we are delivering for the people of Scotland, they are contributing precisely nothing. They opted out of the budget process while others in the chamber achieved something for the country. They failed to vote for the budget—a budget that is delivering progress on eradicating child poverty, delivering for the economy and on combating the climate emergency and delivering for our public services—because politics is their priority.
Delivery is our priority. We are delivering, and those parties cannot stand it—[Interruption.] They do not like it—they are rattled. Farage has got them rattled, Presiding Officer—[Interruption.]
Thank you.
Last year, Labour promised to cut energy bills, end austerity and deliver change. Instead, it has short-changed the people, continued to balance the books on the backs of pensioners and disabled people, and allowed energy bills to go up—[Interruption.]
Let us hear the cabinet secretary.
That failure to deliver has cost the Westminster parties this past week, but not nearly as much as it is costing the public, businesses and our economy. In stark contrast, this is a programme for government from a Government that will deliver for the people of Scotland, and I will be proud to work for its delivery and for further progress for Scotland.
That concludes the debate on the programme for government 2025-26.
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Programme for Government