Wellbeing and Sustainable Development Bill: consultation

Annex A: The National Performance Framework (NPF) in legislation

The NPF is Scotland’s wellbeing framework, setting out a vision of the country we want to be. It is intended to shape policy and delivery decision making across all levels of government, public bodies, and public services, and encourage collaboration towards the achievement of shared National Outcomes.

The National Outcomes have a statutory basis in the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015.^[16] The key existing duty related to the National Outcomes is as follows:

• “The persons mentioned in subsection (2) [a cross-border public authority; any other Scottish public authority; any other person carrying out functions of a public nature] must have regard to the national outcomes in carrying out the functions mentioned in subsection (3) [any such function that is exercisable in or as regards Scotland and does not relate to reserved matters].”

This means that all public authorities are required to “have regard to” the national outcomes in carrying out their work. The Act also requires Scottish Ministers to determine National Outcomes for Scotland, consult on these National Outcomes, review them every five years, and publish reports about the extent to which the National Outcomes have been achieved.

However, several public sector and third sector stakeholders and organisations – particularly those who contributed to the Finance and Public Administration Committee inquiry on the NPF – reported an ‘implementation gap’ between the National Outcomes and their use in policy areas. We also heard similar feedback from some of those who responded to the Scottish Government’s Review of National Outcomes consultation.

Several stakeholders have also argued that the “have regard to” duty does not go far enough to ensure sustainable development and wellbeing are central to decision making, as it does not explicitly require consideration during policy development and delivery on how to achieve the National Outcomes.

This has highlighted that whilst the NPF has broad support as a vision for national wellbeing, further measures may be needed to encourage all public authorities, both national and local, to focus their policy and decisions on achieving the National Outcomes in a coherent and joined-up way. We are consulting to make sure that the provisions of the WSD Bill achieve this as effectively as possible.