Programme for Government 2024-25: Serving Scotland

Year Four Legislative Programme

The Scottish Government intends to introduce 14 Bills over the course of the parliamentary year – alongside 12 Bills already before the Scottish Parliament. We will also continue to develop other proposals for legislative change for next parliamentary year and beyond. This includes our commitment to ensure that the rights of neurodivergent people and people with learning disabilities are respected, protected and championed, by publishing draft provisions for a Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill. Work will also continue to develop proposals for Human Rights and Ending Conversion Practices.

Adults with Incapacity

The Bill will be a first step to update and modernise the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 in line with developing thinking and international standards on human rights. It will ensure adults are supported to make and act upon their own decisions for as long as possible. The Bill will also introduce proposals to modernise how adults with incapacity can participate in research in Scotland, whilst continuing to ensure the rights, safety, dignity and wellbeing of these research participants are prioritised throughout the process.

Budget (No. 4)

The annual Budget Bill provides parliamentary approval for the Scottish Government’s spending plans, allocates resources to strategic objectives, and supports progress towards the vision of a more successful country.

Building Safety Levy

Subject to the devolution of the necessary powers, the Bill will establish a Building Safety Levy in Scotland, equivalent to a Levy that will be introduced by the UK Government in England. The Levy will provide vital revenues to support the funding of the Scottish Government’s Cladding Remediation Programme.

Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets)

This Bill will establish a carbon budget approach to target setting, with budgets set through secondary legislation after expert advice, and will also make provision for a new Climate Change Plan to be published that reflects these carbon budgets. The ultimate target of net zero by 2045 will not be changed, and the Government will retain annual reporting on emissions and our commitment to just transition principles.

Community Wealth Building

The Bill will seek to address economic and wealth inequality by supporting the retention of more wealth in local and regional economies. It will seek to ensure consistent implementation of the Community Wealth Building model of economic development across Scotland.

Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews

This dual‑purpose Bill will make permanent some of the temporary justice measures in the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022 and introduce measures that modernise criminal justice processes. It will also provide a legislative framework for Scotland’s first national multi‑agency Domestic Homicide and Suicide Review model.

Crofting

This Bill will support the sustainability of crofting, make crofting regulation less onerous for active crofters and the Crofting Commission, and allow crofters to innovate, diversify and adapt to help meet future climate and environmental challenges.

Leases (Automatic continuation etc.)

The Bill takes forward Scottish Law Commission recommendations to improve, simplify and update aspects of the law of commercial leases, particularly in relation to the circumstances in which leases continue after their termination dates, so that it meets the needs of a modern Scottish economy.

Heat in Buildings

This Bill is part of the Scottish Government’s wider response to the climate crisis. It will include provisions to prohibit the use of certain direct emission heating systems after 2045 and to require certain properties to meet a minimum standard of energy efficiency. The Bill will give Ministers powers to make regulations specifying how these measures are to be implemented including powers to ensure that the requirements on building owners are fair and proportionate.

Misogyny

The Bill will implement recommendations of the Working Group chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy, informed by the subsequent Scottish Government consultation, to create new offences related to misogynistic conduct, providing new powers to hold to account perpetrators who harm women and reinforce barriers to an equal society.

Natural Environment

The Bill will establish the framework for statutory targets to restore and protect nature. It will also include provisions to modernise the way in which national parks and deer are managed and provide powers to update environmental impact assessment and habitats legislation to support delivery of our net zero and biodiversity goals.

Post-School Education Reform

The Bill will simplify the post‑school funding body landscape. We are currently consulting on proposals to bring funding for learner support into one place, and funding for apprenticeships together into one place, benefiting learners, employers, the economy and wider society.

Prisoners

The Bill will propose changes to the release process for prisoners, taking into account the responses to a recent public consultation exercise. This will form part of a range of measures designed to respond to the rising prison population, which has reached critical levels.

UEFA EURO 2028

The Bill will put in place commercial rights protections to meet UEFA’s requirements for hosting EURO 2028 matches in Scotland.