New Deal for Business Group - Report on Progress & Recommendations: Implementation Plan

Executive Summary

Background

Our National Strategy for Transformation (NSET) made clear that transforming our economy requires a radical change in the way we deliver, based on the public, private and third sectors respecting each other’s strengths and drawing on each other’s talents.

That concept of a new Culture of Delivery is embedded in NSET, and New Deal for Business will be the core of that programme over the next 18 months, recognising that how business and the Scottish Government work together is a critical enabler in delivering a fair, green and growing economy.

The New Deal for Business Group (NDBG) was established following the publication of the First Minister's Policy Prospectus, to develop a high-quality functioning relationship between the Scottish Government and business and other partners by July 2025, which is key to delivery of NSET.

The New Deal for Business Group and its five sub-groups worked at pace publishing its report on 29 June, with the First Minister accepting all the recommendations.

What the Implementation Plan does

This implementation plan sets out the road map to deliver the NDBG recommendations, using an action orientated, product-based approach, focused on 10 key priority recommendations derived from the 78 individual recommendations, which are now agreed actions. This document sets out how those actions will be delivered and the products that will be developed as a result. This work is presented in this implementation plan by the relevant subgroup of the NDBG.

Most actions relate to developing and improving existing Scottish Government processes and changing culture, and business will have a role in helping achieve these.

Our aim is to implement the full plan within 18 months of this publication, with short term priorities delivered within 6 months and medium-term priorities within 12 months.

Products that will be delivered to help business

Developing this Implementation Plan is a significant milestone and is itself an important product.

This builds on tangible progress made already, which includes:

• We extended the deadline for lodging Non-Domestic Rates (NDR) proposals from 31^st July to 31^st August 2023, providing businesses with an extra month to submit their 2023 revaluation proposals following the introduction of a new two-stage appeals system on 1^st April 2023. This was welcomed by business.
• We assessed the cumulative impact of this year’s Programme for Government (PfG) on business, and business was informed about this (as far as possible, having regard to parliamentary privilege). This will be developed into a formal procedure to increase transparency of PfG process and ensure cumulative impact is identified at the earliest opportunity next year.
• In the 2023/24 Programme for Government, we set out our commitment to establish a new Small Business Unit, to work more closely with small businesses and ensure that their voices are heard during policy development, building good practice in participation and engagement. We also announced plans to collaborate with the Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) and other representatives of small business, to deliver a three-year programme to raise productivity and deliver cost savings for small businesses.
• We have canvassed views from the business community on the development of specific sectoral Just Transition Plans, making a commitment to develop and deepen that engagement as we produce, and consult on draft plans, to be finalised in mid-2024, enabling business to inform this work upstream in the policy cycle.

Future products and associated key milestones linked to each action are set out in full in the Annexes, by relevant sub-groups.

These include:

• The independent Regulatory Review Group will be re-established with its first meeting on 26 October this year, with a fresh remit and membership. It will meet regularly to inform development of regulations and will include the business voice.
• We will commence a reform programme, to identify, consider and, if appropriate, remove regulations no longer required. We will continue to be open to ideas for proactive regulations which will support businesses in Scotland, especially our small businesses.
• We will work with business stakeholders to develop a new Business Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) Toolkit and associated guidance for policy makers. This will include work to ensure that the impact specifically on small businesses is considered. Opportunities for business to contribute evidence will be embedded in our policy development cycle.
• We will publish of a matrix of consultations, Bills and Regulations in development. This will give business improved visibility on policies which are in development.
• We will improve our systematic mapping of current engagement with business, across Scottish Government, to capture the range of business voices in the development of particular policies. This will improve transparency in our approach and enable any gaps to be filled.
• NDR policy reforms will be kept under review to ensure that the system delivers the most competitive environment to do business, whilst supporting our communities.
• We will develop a description of Wellbeing Economy that is meaningful to and understood by business, informed by the Wellbeing Economy Expert Advisory Group (by July 2024) which includes two of the co-chairs of the Wellbeing subgroup.
• We will use data on the type of support for which business is searching to inform Government’s understanding of business needs.

Measuring Success

The actions in this Implementation Plan are interconnected. In combination, they should lead to measurable improvements in business confidence and deliver improvements in the process by which business is engaged in policy development. Progress against each of the actions will be monitored by the NDBG.

We will measure the overall success of the actions included in this Implementation Plan by reporting on metrics that focus on:

• Business sentiment
• Business engagement
• Business confidence

However, improved processes are not the end in of itself. Improved processes should contribute to improved policy outcomes. The business metrics should therefore be read alongside the measures of success of our various policy interventions across the Scottish Government under reference to broader performance matrices including the National Performance Framework, the Wellbeing Economy Monitor and the NSET measurement framework.