Programme for Government: First Minister's speech - 4 September 2024

Presiding Officer,

This year, Parliament marks the 25^th anniversary of its opening, and I have witnessed every previous Programme for Government being announced – albeit from different places across the Parliamentary Chamber.

Today, however, is the first time that I present a Programme for Government. It is an extraordinary privilege to do so and to have the opportunity to further shape the direction of our country.

I do so in a spirit that recognises that we all come from different political traditions. I believe that Scotland would best be able to progress, as an independent country, where the issues we address in this programme can be more effectively resolved. Others take the opposite view. We have a range of priorities and perspectives, but fundamentally we are all here to contribute to creating the best future we can for Scotland.

My Government does not command a majority in this Parliament. We have to work with others to make progress on our agenda. I therefore set out this Programme for Government with a commitment to work across this Chamber to seek common ground with others.

I extend the invitation to colleagues to work together to find that common ground.

A quarter of a century after its creation, this Parliament faces some of its toughest tests.

We are all aware of the problems and difficulties that have been caused by 14 years of austerity driven by the UK Government.

We are all aware of the acute challenges that are faced due to the impact of sky-high inflation and the failure of the UK Government to adequately increase Budgets to address that fact.

We know that, because we all can see the pressure on our public services and also because the new Chancellor of the Exchequer has made that very point clear to the House of Commons.

The Scottish Government has set out to Parliament the difficult decisions we have to take to address those circumstances.

Today, I set out how, within that challenging situation, my Government will deliver for the people of Scotland.

This Programme for Government sets out – simply and clearly – our intentions for the next 12 months.

Its purpose is to ensure this government spends every day delivering for the people of Scotland.

The commitments in it are practical, not partisan. They are affordable, impactful and deliverable.

Together, they reflect my optimism, that even though we face an incredibly challenging set of circumstances at this moment, the inherent strengths of Scotland, our people and our communities, can create great possibilities for our country.

When I became the First Minister, I made clear that my Government would focus on four priorities:

• eradicating child poverty,
• building prosperity,
• improving our public services,
• and protecting the planet.

Child poverty is first and foremost in these priorities.

No child should have their opportunities, their development, their health and wellbeing, and their future curtailed by the material wealth of their family.  Not ever, and certainly not today, in a modern, prosperous society like Scotland.

This is not only the moral compass of my Government, it is the greatest investment in our country’s future that we can possibly make.

It is the route to enabling greater participation in our economy and our society. It is the route to enabling more people to fulfil their potential and to be contributors to our country.

We have dedicated roughly £3 billion a year to eradicating poverty and mitigating the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis.

We have established and increased our widely praised Scottish Child Payment, expanded funded early learning and childcare, and committed around £1.2 billion to mitigate the impacts of 14 years of UK welfare policy.

These measures, which are key to increasing family incomes and enabling those greater levels of participation in our economy, are central to our Programme for Government.

The Child Poverty Action Group estimates that low-income families in Scotland will be around £28,000 better off by the time their child turns 18, compared to families across the UK.

And analysis by the Scottish Government estimates that around 100,000 children will be kept out of relative poverty this year.

These achievements are significant and show the difference that we are making. But our goal is not just to keep some children out of poverty, or only to make child poverty less acute.

Our goal is to lift every child in Scotland who is in poverty out of it.

So we must do more.

We know that we cannot address child poverty without addressing family poverty.

We know that families thrive when they are supported by coordinated, holistic services that meet their needs and are easy to access.

Many amazing and dedicated practitioners are already working tirelessly to connect services and adapt them to the needs of the families that they support.

We must create a system of whole-family support that is available across the country. We must ensure this system is easy to access, well-connected and responsive to families’ needs.

Over the coming year, we will work with partners to enable greater local flexibility, so that services can be more easily tailored to the needs of the families that they support.

We will look at what budgets can be pooled and what reporting can be streamlined. This will involve working closely with our local authority partners, other public services and the Third Sector, to align services and ensure there is a focus across our public services on meeting the needs and supporting the resilience of families.

We will consider where greater investment is needed.

And we will use the learning of what is already working from our pilot areas.

Some of that evidence comes from, for example, the Early Adopter Community project in Dundee.

In that project, keyworkers have been engaging with members of the public who face obstacles to entering the labour market.

By providing focused childcare support, advice on eligibility for benefit provision, and employability support, individuals are being supported into the labour market.

These individuals are sustaining employment and experiencing a number of benefits to their financial and mental wellbeing.

The key objective of the approach that we will take will be to deliver significant reform of the work of public services to deliver whole-family support extensively across the country.

This will create the conditions that support more parents into employment and reinforce our work to eradicate child poverty.

Key to the work on whole family support will be a focus on prevention and early intervention, those small supports early on that can pay big dividends down the line.

This includes pregnancy and the first years of a child’s life.

Addressing risks and problems at this stage can have positive impacts that last through to adulthood.

It can support healthy development, prevent illness and ease future pressure on services, making the entire system more sustainable.

So, in the coming year, we will ensure that more women get to know, and receive care and support from, the same midwifery team from pregnancy through birth.

We will invest nearly £1 billion a year in affordable, high-quality and funded early learning and childcare. 

And we commit to supporting early development and reducing developmental concerns at 27-30 months by a quarter by 2030.

We will support schools to reduce the poverty-related attainment gap across every local authority each year between now and 2026.

And we will ensure that, when young people are ready to enter the workplace, they have the learning, the skills and the opportunities to succeed. 

We will invest in community-based youth work and improve careers support so that there is better information on career choices.

For those households struggling now, boosting financial security and cutting costs is one of the most direct things that we can do to support them out of poverty.

So, we will expand advice in accessible settings, including community centres and hospitals. This will expand a programme that, in its first year, helped over 5,500 people access financial gains of over £7.5 million to support their families.

We will also complete the national rollout of our Carer Support Payment, which will support over 100,000 carers this financial year – including, for the first-time ever, some in full-time education.

The effect of this provision will be to enable much greater participation in education for those with caring responsibilities, which will greatly increase the opportunities for those individuals to make an economic contribution to our society.

That effort to stimulate greater economic participation lies at the heart of measures in this Programme for Government.

 

A key aspect also of our Programme to support families is to ensure that we take effective action to enable people to have a safe and secure place to call their home.

The tragic Grenfell Tower fire emphasised how important building and fire safety is. Keeping residents and homeowners safe is our priority and we are taking action to protect lives by ensuring the assessment and remediation of buildings with potentially unsafe cladding is carried out.

We will also carefully consider all the recommendations in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s report

This year we will invest nearly £600 million in affordable housing, including an additional £40 million to bring existing homes into affordable use.

There will be a strong focus on working with partners to enable existing accommodation that is not currently in use to be made available as swiftly as possible to meet the need for housing – ensuring we take every step we can to boost the availability of housing as quickly as we possibly can.

We will provide a further £100 million to support the construction of around 2,800 mid-market rent homes.

And in progressing our proposals for rent controls, we will introduce amendments at stage 2 of the Housing Bill to ensure that tenants have the protection they need and that Scotland is able to attract more investment to supplement the investment we are making through the public finances.

These commitments are central to our efforts to tackle poverty, but they are also inextricably linked to our efforts to increase national prosperity with a strong, green, wellbeing economy.

It takes thriving businesses, large and small, to sustain our families and our communities.

We are already making significant progress in this area. Since 2007, GDP per person in Scotland has grown by 11%, compared to the UK’s 6%.

Productivity has grown at an average rate more than double that of the UK.

And, last year, earnings in Scotland grew more quickly than in any other part of the UK. This includes London and the South East.

But again, we must go further.

It is not enough to simply have a strong economy. True prosperity goes beyond pounds and pence.

It means an economy that is inclusive, that supports people into work, attracts investment, promotes entrepreneurs and innovators, and furthers our work on our path to net zero.

Key to this will be increasing the levels of infrastructure investment and creating the right conditions for business investment.

For the past 9 years, we have been the UK’s top destination outside of London for foreign direct investment.

This Government will be focused on delivering investment-friendly policies and support, such as the Scottish National Investment Bank, which will help to build on the strong performance we have built to date.

Last year, the bank supported 1,850 jobs by investing in companies with over £92 million of supply chain spend in Scotland.

Its £60 million investment in Thriving Investments Mid Market Rent fund will help deliver affordable, quality rental homes.

Put simply, this means tenants benefitting from the scheme will pay lower rents but the economy will be boosted by the development activity involved.

To ensure Scotland remains a premier location for investment, we will align government and public bodies behind a co-ordinated programme to attract investment in priority areas, such as net zero, housing and infrastructure.

We will build on recent successes, such as the Sumitomo and Ardersier projects, to promote our national project pipeline of investment opportunities.

We will develop two Green Freeports and establish two new Investment Zones.

And – with our commitment of up to £500 million of investment – we will seek to generate at least £1.5 billion in private investment to support the offshore wind sector.

A critical element of ensuring that Scotland is attractive to investors, means that we must intensify our support to Scotland’s innovators and entrepreneurs as part of our work to become a start-up and scale-up nation.

So this year, we will maximise the impact of our national network of startup support, our Techscaler programme.

The programme has already supported start-ups to raise £70 million in investment.

We will also work with organisations like Scottish Enterprise, the National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland and the National Robotarium to create new opportunities for our most promising 'deep tech' companies.

We will ensure our universities can contribute to international-leading research and economic growth and support the development of business clusters in areas such as digital and AI, life sciences and the energy transition.

Small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of our economy, so we will deliver the commitments set out in the New Deal for Business.

We will empower decision-making through Regional Economic Partnerships and sign the Falkirk and Grangemouth and Argyll & Bute Regional Growth Deals.

We will tackle economic inactivity and skills shortages in our workforce and remove barriers to employment.

This includes leading a new, national approach to skills planning and introducing the Post-School Education Reform Bill to simplify the post-school funding body landscape.

Specialist support for disabled people will be enhanced across all local authorities by the summer of 2025.

We will expand Scotland’s Migration Service and continue to make the case for tailored migration routes – including a Rural Visa Pilot to support rural employers to recruit the people they need.

We will support Scotland’s culture sector and creative industries, which are key to our economy, our culture and national identity, and we recognise the need for the artistic and creative community to be well supported for the future.

A review of Creative Scotland will be undertaken to ensure the appropriate approach is in place to meet the needs of the sector and I am pleased to confirm to Parliament that the resources required to enable Creative Scotland to continue the work of the Open Fund are now available for them to distribute.

And we will continue to invest in our national infrastructure – the transport and digital networks that enable our economy to thrive.

This year, over 20,000 premises will be connected to gigabit capable broadband across Scotland in areas of market failure.

We will progress dualling the A9, with construction expected to start before the end of this year on the Tomatin to Moy stretch and the procurement process already underway on the Tay Crossing to Ballinluig stretch.

We will deliver 3 of the 6 new major ferries currently under construction at the present time, and we will progress the procurement of 7 new electric ferries as part of the Small Vessel Programme.

We will also continue to invest in our rail network and upgrade and reconfigure power supplies to support further electrification of our railways.

All of this will improve access to and from our rural and island communities, improving transportation safety, journey times and reliability, and generate economic growth.

It will also enable delivery of our valuable public services and ensure people in every corner of Scotland have access to the high quality services they need, when they need them.

Public services touch every aspect of our day-to-day lives. They support our families. They enable our economy to grow and to thrive.

Key to public services is ensuring everyone has access to high-quality services that are right for them. Those services must be easy to access and to navigate.

Nowhere is this more notable than with our National Health Service.

We have seen terrific successes in our NHS, including the best performing core A&E departments anywhere in the UK.

We need to ensure our NHS has the resources it needs, both for today and for the years to come.

We will increase the Boards’ baseline funding to reduce waiting list backlogs.

We will deliver around 20,000 more orthopaedic, ophthalmology and general surgery procedures annually in our new National Treatment Centres.

And free up 210,000 planned care outpatient appointments through our Centre for Sustainable Delivery programmes – thus eliminating unnecessary hospital attendances.

We will also reform primary care – increasing capacity and access to general practice, community pharmacy, dental and community eyecare services by the end of 2026.

And, backed by £120 million of additional funding for NHS Boards, we will support continued improvements across a range of mental health services and treatments.

This includes meeting the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services waiting times standard nationally and clearing backlogs by December 2025.

We will intensify our work to tackle delayed discharge. 

No one should remain in hospital any longer than they need to. So we will standardise best practice and an integrated approach, from the time a person enters hospital through to their timely discharge.

This will ensure everyone can recover in the best, least intensive setting for them, whilst also making room in hospital for those who need it.

But in this challenging fiscal environment, we cannot deliver public services as we did in years past. 

We must change the model of service delivery to promote positive outcomes, prioritise prevention and reduce demand for future services.

Once again, intelligent investment and innovation will be key here. 

For example, the Scottish Government invested £4 million to pilot Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services across 5 NHS boards. 

This service works through primary care to provide a quicker diagnosis to people experiencing non-specific symptoms.

Impressively, an evaluation of the pilot in NHS Fife and in NHS Dumfries and Galloway found the estimated time to diagnosis was roughly 65 days faster than via the more usual route of a general surgery clinic.

Earlier diagnosis means better outcomes, less intensive treatment and less strain on the system.  It means Scotland, as a whole, is healthier.

We have similar ambitions for all of our public services as part of our 10-year Public Service Reform programme, which will guide our approach. 

And every area of this government is committed to delivering reform consistent with those principles. 

As part of this ambitious programme, we will work with local authorities to boost school standards – with a focus on attendance, behaviour, and the curriculum. 

We will implement the Curriculum Improvement Cycle and progress with qualifications reform. 

And we will reform our national education bodies to drive improvement, raise standards and ensure that the needs of learners are always at the forefront of our work.

We attach the greatest significance to the safety of our communities so we will work with Police Scotland to ensure that that remains the case.

And because our public services are only as strong as the people who deliver them, we will continue to award fair pay settlements, reduce workloads and improve conditions for our public service employees.

We will review and reform the Junior Doctor and Dentist contract, progress towards the 36-hour working week for Agenda for Change staff, and provide local authorities with £145 million to protect teacher numbers.

But every one of these important actions – and indeed everything I have mentioned so far – will be rendered ineffective if we do not also address the greatest existential threat of our times. 

We must take effective action to tackle the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.

It is absolutely essential that we protect our planet by reducing emissions, restoring our natural environment and investing in adaptations that will protect us from the impacts of climate change.

While we are decarbonising at a faster rate than the rest of the UK, the most difficult part of the journey lies ahead.

The world’s global temperature has now pushed past the internationally agreed 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Ten of our hottest years have come in the last 20, and the increased frequency of storms and floods is already having a real impact on communities and key sectors.

In addition to this, the 2023 State of Nature in Scotland report found that monitored species have declined by 15% over the last 30 years.

We are already making real progress protecting our environment and helping it to recover. 75% of all new UK woodlands are here in Scotland.

But we must adapt to the changes in our environment. That is why we will take forward our National Adaptation Plan.

We will work with Scottish Water to improve the resilience of our water and sewerage systems to intense rainfall and drought.

And we will restore at least 10,000 hectares of degraded peatland and create at least 10,000 hectares of woodlands.

We will also bring forward a Natural Environment Bill to support delivery of our net zero and biodiversity goals.

Climate change legislation that will enable 5-year carbon budgets to be set and delivered will be introduced.

This, along with our Climate Change Plan and sectoral Just Transition Plans, will chart our course to net zero by 2045.

Tackling the climate emergency is not only a danger that must be recognised and managed. It is an imperative that should motivate us to change. 

Scotland is a land of remarkable innovation and abundant natural resources.

We can tackle climate change whilst at the same time growing our economy. Indeed, we have been doing it for decades. 

Between 1990 and 2022, Scotland's economy grew by 67% in real terms. In that same time, we cut our greenhouse gas emissions in half.

And last year, the Scottish National Investment Bank – in the course of investing in businesses and projects that support our economy – also avoided, reduced or removed over 52,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent across its portfolio.

In 2022, renewable technologies generated the equivalent of 113% of Scotland’s overall electricity consumption. 

In 2024, our capacity for renewable energy generation increased to 15.4 gigawatts, and with the projects currently in the planning pipeline, we have the potential to produce more than three times that.

We will shortly publish our Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan. By delivering the commitments within it we will again double our ambitions for renewable energy generation. 

As part of this, we are acting to speed up the planning and consenting regime for renewable energy generation to provide certainty to the market and to stimulate private investment.

We will invest £9 million to support Scotland’s manufacturing industries to invest in energy efficiency and decarbonisation projects.

And we will work with the UK Government to deliver the infrastructure required for a net zero emissions energy system, including by providing £2 million – as part of the promised support for carbon capture of up to £80 million – to support the Acorn Carbon transport and storage project and securing a positive future for Grangemouth.

We need to take forward careful stewardship of our oil and gas sector to ensure a sector that contributes significantly to the economic health of Scotland at this moment is able to make the transition effectively to net zero.

The expertise of the sector will be vital both to the future of the industry and to our transition to net zero. 

We need to keep those skills in Scotland as we move toward a green economy.  For we are in the midst of a renewables revolution here in Scotland.

Alongside our investment in renewables, we will support households and communities to reduce emissions.

More than a third of the population already benefit from our offer of free bus travel. 

We have some of the most generous grants and loans in the UK to support the move to clean heating.  And we are within reach of 6,000 electric vehicle charging network points in 2024, two years ahead of schedule.

This year, we will conclude the review of our New Build Heat Standard and bring forward a Heat in Buildings Bill. 

The Bill will set a long-term direction of travel that is deliverable and affordable for households and businesses. It will also provide certainty to building owners and the supply chain.

Through the work of Home Energy Scotland and the support available through our Warmer Homes Scotland scheme, we will take forward measures to ensure we offer practical solutions to encourage energy efficiency and to enable families to stay warm.

The purpose of the Heat in Buildings Bill must be to enable practical assistance to be made available to households and businesses to support energy efficiency and to improve the quality of heating systems.

We will also set a clear timetable for the delivery of roughly 24,000 additional electric vehicle charge points by 2030.

And we will make it easier for people to walk, wheel or cycle through our Active Travel Infrastructure Fund, the National Cycle Network and our People and Place Programme.

These commitments are good for our communities and good for our environment. Plain and simple, they are good for Scotland.

 

Presiding Officer,

Beyond the question of my Government’s priorities and the specifics of the programme, there is one further question I want to address.

My Ministers are in the public service.

I want my Government to set the highest standard of propriety and integrity.

I want trust to be at the heart of our relationship with the people of Scotland.

That is why I intend to make changes to strengthen the Scottish Ministerial Code.

Investigations into alleged breaches of the Code will no longer happen only at the instruction of the First Minster.

Independent Advisers will be able to launch their own investigations whenever they feel it is warranted.

And where there has been a breach, they will be able to advise on appropriate sanctions. 

These changes will significantly strengthen the role of the independent advisers, whose Terms of Reference will also be published.

I expect to publish the new code by the end of this year.

Presiding Officer, Scotland is a country of many strengths.

Our economy is founded on industries of global reach in energy, financial services, food and drink, tourism, life sciences and advanced manufacturing.

Our education system is high performing and includes a number of world class universities.

Our natural environment is of the highest quality and provides the basis for so many of our economic strengths.

Our talented and creative population is our greatest asset, enhanced by those who choose to make their future here.

Our society is bound together by a strong sense of social justice, of acting together to build the common good to ensure everyone in our country is able to fulfil their potential.

Yes, we face challenges. But if properly focused and motivated, I am optimistic and confident that the inherent strengths of our country will help us overcome those challenges.

With good will, and with a relentless focus on delivering for the people of Scotland, I believe the resources available to us can be used to help us eradicate child poverty, build prosperity, improve our public services and play our part in protecting the planet.

That is the focus of this Programme for Government, and I commend it to Parliament.