The Final Countdown to election 2026: Programme for Government 2025-26 – Building the Best Future for Scotland – SPICe Spotlight

Reading Time: 26 minutes

On 6 May 2025, John Swinney MSP presented his second Programme for Government (PfG) since becoming First Minister in May 2024. This year’s PfG was brought forward from its usual September slot “to enable a full year of delivery before the 2026 Scottish Parliament election”. This will be the final PfG before next year’s Scottish Parliament elections.

The theme of the PfG was ‘Building the Best Future for Scotland’ and, as with last year’s PfG, it focuses on the Government’s Priorities for Scotland which were announced to the Scottish Parliament on 22 May 2024. SPICe also published a blog analysing the Priorities at the time.

The PfG for 2025-26 sets out the actions that the Government intends to take in the next twelve months, and the proposed legislative programme.

This extended, long-read blogpost provides a summary of the PfG, and highlights areas that are likely to be of particular interest to MSPs and the Parliament over the next year. It is not a comprehensive summary.

Blogs on previous PFGs can be accessed at the following links:

Whilst this is the final year of the Parliamentary Session, this year’s PfG is of a broadly similar length to the previous three publications but considerably shorter than the PfG following the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.

2021-22 – 123 pages
2022-23 – 36 pages
2023-24 – 60 pages
2024-25 – 47 pages
2025-26 – 46 pages

This year’s PfG is the 19^th delivered by the Scottish National Party in Government.

The contents pop-out below will help readers navigate to specific sections and subjects they are interested in.

Contents show

Overall approach – Building the Best Future for Scotland

The May 2024 Priorities for Scotland had highlighted four priorities and this year’s PfG (as with the last) continues to focus on the same four priorities:

Growing the Economy
Eradicating Child Poverty
Tackling the Climate Emergency
High Quality and Sustainable Public Services

As with last year, the PfG is structured around the four priorities with the different policy areas covered under the appropriate priorities. While there is some logic to this approach, it can make it harder to navigate as it is not always immediately apparent which policy sits where.

Reiterating a point he also made last year during the PfG statement, the First Minister spoke of his minority government’s willingness to work with other parties in Parliament:

“That progress has been evident in the way we do business here in our Parliament. The fact that four parties were able to come together, to negotiate in good faith, and pass a budget that delivers record funding for our NHS, is testament to what is possible.

Today’s Programme for Government is presented in that same spirit. It contains many of the fruits of our budget process – with elements within it that are there only because of the co-operation of other parties.”

Text analysis of the PfG

The remaining sections of this extended blogpost follow the same structure as the PfG and pick out policies and announcements that may be of interest to MSPs and committees in the coming parliamentary year. It also identifies where announcements have been restated or removed.

But first, the following infographic shows the results of text analysis of the whole PfG document. SPICe’s data visualisation team has produced a “wordcloud”, which many readers will be familiar with. It shows the frequency of words used in the PfG, excluding certain very regularly used words.

Alongside the wordcloud for this year’s PfG, to allow for comparison we have also provided the wordcloud which was produced following last year’s PfG. The slight difference between the two images is that this year’s wordcloud sets out the 25 most used words whilst last year’s version focused on the top 20.

First Minister’s Foreword

In his foreword to the PfG document, the First Minister summarised the context in which this PfG is being delivered:

“Times are tough for households and businesses across Scotland and the world around us is changing in ways that are difficult to predict. These two realities shape this Programme for Government.”

The First Minister also set out the focus of this year’s PfG:

“It is a programme that is focused on delivery and hope. Delivery in response to the challenges we know people are facing in their everyday lives. Hope because we are making the most of Scotland’s vast resources to deliver higher standards of living and an improved quality of life for people in all corners of this land.”

Reflecting the difficult economic circumstances faced by families across Scotland, the First Minister set out what he called his “cost of living guarantee”, which has a focus on “ensur[ing] that people in Scotland are better protected during the cost-of-living crisis compared with elsewhere in the UK”:

“I know that cost-of-living pressures continue to be at the front of people’s minds. Over the years, our choices have delivered Council Tax that is on average over 30% lower than in England. Water bills, currently almost 20% lower than in England and Wales, will remain lower, as will income tax for a majority of workers in Scotland. Prescriptions, eye examinations and bus travel for over 2.3 million people will also remain free, students will pay no tuition fees and families with young children will continue to receive a package of early learning and childcare support worth more than £6,000 for each eligible child each year. Together, this is my cost-of-living guarantee.”

Parliament and Constitution

As with last year’s PfG, constitutional issues took a back seat in this year’s publication. The First Minister’s statement was silent on the issue of Scottish independence. The Programme for Government document does mention independence, but only three times, two being in the First Minister’s foreword which states:

“My passion to ensure that Scotland is the best that Scotland can be, is what makes me believe in Independence. I believe Independence will transform the life chances of the people of Scotland.”

Perhaps notably, that articulation of the First Minister’s personal stance was followed by a note on working “Within the current powers of the Scottish Parliament”, on which the First Minister states:

“I will always strive to ensure the Scottish Government achieves as much as is possible to improve people’s lives.”

There was mention of independence in relation to Scotland’s economy, and a commitment for the Scottish Government to:

“publish a further paper setting out the economic benefits that independence can bring for Scotland, with economic decisions taken in Scotland, for the benefit of Scotland, rather than a UK government that too often seems to treat Scotland as an afterthought.”

There was a nod to next year’s scheduled Scottish Parliament elections, with the PfG noting the Access to Elected Office Fund which was established in the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Act 2025. This Fund will support disabled people who wish to stand for election and is being administered by Inclusion Scotland. Details of when the fund will open and how people can apply for it is yet to be published. As well as the Fund, the Programme noted that work is ongoing to improve accessibility for voters with sight loss at Scottish Parliament elections, stating that the Scottish Government “will work with electoral administrators to deliver improvements in accessibility for those with sight loss voting in elections, in time for the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections”.

Growing the Economy

Whilst there were few headline-making new announcements around economic policy, there was a notable change in tone. ‘Wellbeing economy’ isn’t mentioned at all. Instead, improving the economy’s competitiveness and attracting investment take centre stage.

Some of the proposed actions stem from what businesses told government in the New Deal for Business process. This includes a review of the valuation methodology for non-domestic rates for the licensed hospitality sector, an assessment of regulations in key growth sectors (presumably with a view to removing or simplifying some of them), and actions to speed up the planning process.

There are also proposals to support business innovation, such as the creation of a new University Proof of Concept Fund and a Technology Council of experts, as well as a forthcoming innovation summit.

Interestingly, there is also a commitment to “no further divergence from the UK on Income Tax for the remainder of this Parliament”. This is slightly different to the government’s tax strategy, which committed to not introduce new bands or increase tax rates – something that is not contingent on UK policy. No changes to UK income tax are expected before the next Holyrood election, but beyond then, it will be interesting to see if a future Scottish Government continues to commit to no further tax divergence, or to no more tax bands and tax rate rises.

Events at Grangemouth have crystalised the need to protect economic interests as industry decarbonises. In this regard, the PfG perhaps seeks to put pressure on the UK Government to act in reserved areas. The Scottish Government commits to “work with” the UK Government to reform the consenting process for major energy infrastructure projects (a reserved area), and to progress a carbon capture and storage network in Scotland (which is awaiting UK Government approval). See also the section below on “Tackling the Climate Emergency”.

The Scottish Government also announced a new bidding round for £8.5 million of funding from the Just Transition Fund in the North East and Moray, which was initially promised as £500 million over ten years.

Skills

The PfG pledges to deliver the Tertiary Education reforms currently being scrutinised by the Education, Children and Young People’s Committee.

There is also a pledge to continue to implement the Scottish Government’s response to the Withers review, through a pledge to introduce a Scottish Government led approach to national skills planning, which currently sits with Skills Development Scotland, and to review and improve the careers service. No details on the timing or format of this review are provided.

Further and Higher Education

There were no further and higher education Bills announced, though the Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill announced in the 2024-25 PfG is currently at Stage 1 in Parliament. The commitment to free tuition is repeated, but references to a review of the funding model for post-school education provision contained in the 2023-24 PfG are not repeated this year.

The 2025-26 PfG also states that £3.5m will be provided “so that colleges can deliver the pipeline of skills our economy and public services need, with new programmes focused on care and offshore wind.”

This funding was initially announced in January 2025 in a letter from Finance Secretary Shona Robison to the Finance and Public Administration Committee.

Scottish Government’s response to the deteriorating outlook for trade

On 1 May 2019 the Scottish Government published ‘A Trading Nation – a plan for growing Scotland’s exports’. This plan set a headline target of growing exports from 20% to 25% of GDP over ten years. Since this plan was launched, international trade has faced several disruptions; from the UK’s exit from the European Union and the negotiation of new trading arrangements with several key partners, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on global supply chains, the fallout from the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, to the most recent trade war sparked by President Trump’s tariffs. Achieving the Scottish Government’s export growth goals looks a lot more challenging than it did in 2019.

The US is currently the largest international market for Scottish exports, and SPICe recently published a blog giving an overview of the key goods and services sold to the US by Scottish companies.

In response to this difficult outlook, the Scottish Government has announced a six point export plan. This plan features little new policy but focuses on scaling up existing activity or reiterates existing pledges. The six actions specified are:

Provide grant support to Scottish companies to achieve international growth.
Support the delivery of the existing sector export plans for technology, life sciences, renewables and hydrogen.
Use inward missions to bring more investors to Scotland and showcase Scottish companies export potential
Scale up the ‘go-to-market’ advice offering at Scotland Development International, and increasing overseas missions.
Increase funding to the International Trade Partnership Programme run with Scottish Chamber of Commerce
Provide information, advice and support to exporters to the US, and develop a US export action plan to identify the US states which offer the best potential market for Scottish goods and services. The US export plan with state level analysis was already planned in the 2019 Trading Nation strategy

The most recent data on Scottish exports shows that in 2021 exports were equivalent to 18.6% of GDP, down from 21% in 2019. It remains to be seen whether the actions taken by the Scottish Government will set a course to reach the equivalent of 25% of GDP by 2028.

Eradicating Child Poverty

The First Minister repeated his national mission of tackling child poverty which is reflected by it being one of the Government’s four overarching priorities.

The PfG noted that child poverty in Scotland is falling and is lower than in the rest of the UK. However, it didn’t mention that the Scottish Government has missed its interim targets. Statistics published in March showed that relative child poverty was 22% in 2023-24 against a statutory target of 18%.

A progress report is due in June which will include an explanation of why the interim targets were missed.

Attention is now turning to the 2030 targets and the PfG highlights the work of developing the next “Tackling Child Poverty delivery plan”. The Scottish Government is currently consulting stakeholders on this plan which is a statutory requirement under the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 and must be published by the end of March 2026.

Under the Child Poverty heading, the Programme for Government listed a very wide range of policies – not all of which are specifically targeted on tackling child poverty. Much of what is included has been previously announced or is the continuation of well-established services.

Childcare

The Programme for Government in 2021-22 said that the Government would “work to expand funded early learning and childcare [ELC] for children aged 1 and 2, starting with low‑income households within this Parliament.” The Government has been progressing this work and this PfG highlights continuing projects and work in this area. It notes that the Government would continue to support the “designing and delivering ELC services for priority families working in 23 ‘Early Adopter Communities’ across six local authority areas.” These were mentioned in the 2022 childcare strategy and previous PfGs. The Scottish Government has said in a number of written questions (e.g. S6W-35645) that it is “is committed to taking the time needed to deliver a childcare expansion that is both fair and affordable” and that it continues to develop an evidence base to inform a future expansion. The timeframe for a future expansion of ELC to younger children is not yet clear.

The 2021-22 PfG also said that the Scottish Government would “build a new system of wraparound childcare for school age children”. The Government published a School Age Childcare Delivery Framework in 2023. This set out how the Government would develop the policy to improve school-age childcare, including through pilots such as the ‘Early Adopter Communities’. The framework said that, in 2025-26, the Scottish Government would “develop a more detailed delivery plan setting out what a targeted school age childcare offer will look like for families within communities and providing a clear timescale for delivery”. There was no mention of this in the latest PfG.

The PfG reaffirms the existing programme for devolved social security including:

mitigating the two child limit from April 2026 at a cost of £155 million in 2026-27

introducing a £100 winter heating payment in 2025-26 for those pension age households who do not qualify for the current payment via Pension Credit at a cost of £69 million.

The additional investment in Scotland on social security has been mostly directed at disability benefits and the Scottish Child Payment (SCP). Neither the First Minister nor the PfG document proposed substantial increases to these – the focus was on continuation. In contrast, the Stop Child Poverty Coalition are asking for the SCP to increase from its current rate of £27.15 to £40, in order to tackle child poverty.

The other big issue for the medium term is how to continue to afford disability benefits in the face of the reductions to the amount that Scotland receives in relation to devolved benefits that will result from the UK Government’s proposals to cut spending on the Personal Independent Payment. The PfG was silent on that point although, to be fair, the reductions to the Scottish social security block grant adjustment aren’t going to appear until 2027-28.

Care reform and The Promise

The PfG document commits to bring forward the Children and Young People (Care) (Scotland) Bill ahead of the summer Parliamentary recess. This will make legislative changes relating to reform of the care system for children and young people following the 2020 Independent Care Review and The Promise.

Previously, the Scottish Government had stated it aimed to “introduce a Promise Bill by the end of this Parliamentary session, dependent on wider pressures on the Parliamentary legislative calendar”. However, the 2024-25 Programme for Government did not mention the Bill. In March this year during an evidence session with the Minister for Children, Young People and the Promise, the Education, Children and Young People Committee highlighted the need to allow sufficient time for Parliamentary scrutiny of the Bill. During this session, the Minister stated she hoped to see the Bill introduced ahead of the summer Parliamentary recess.

The 2025-26 PfG states:

“The Bill looks to make changes in several key areas related to the children’s care system. The content of the Bill will be informed by the recommendations of The Promise and consultations undertaken last year including the Future of Foster Care, Developing a Universal Definition of Care Experience, Children’s Hearings Redesign and ‘Moving On’ from care into adulthood.”

In addition to the Bill, the PfG also states:

That the planned one-off Care Leavers payment of £2,000 will be introduced from 1^st April 2026. This was initially announced in October 2023, and proposals were then consulted on.
Following a review, the Scottish Recommended Allowance for eligible foster and kinship carers will be uprated, with an extra £1.9m provided.
A National Social Work Agency will be established by Spring 2026 – this had previously been announced in a February 2025 Written Answer.

Tackling the Climate Emergency

The PfG describes efforts to “address the twin crises of climate change and nature loss” as a “20-year mission”, reflecting the significant challenge of achieving Scotland’s statutory 2045 net zero greenhouse gas emissions target. The PfG notes not just the increasingly obvious and devastating domestic impacts of climate breakdown like wildfires and flooding, but the opportunity of transforming Scotland’s economy and society through decarbonisation. A Climate Change Plan “which will set out policies and proposals to deliver carbon budgets up to 2040 in a way that delivers a just transition” is expected in the autumn.

Perhaps due to wider UK and international interest in the perceived costs and societal impacts of achieving net zero, the focus of this PfG is on a “green industrial revolution”, stating:

“renewable energy generated in Scotland can pave the way for lower bills, while green industries can create jobs and growth”.

A broad set of actions, many of which have already been announced include:

Leveraging private investment to develop supply chain clusters for offshore wind to boost local job opportunities.
Publishing an offshore wind skills action plan in partnership with industry, the STUC, and public sector. It should be noted that whilst this is expected in the “autumn”, no mention is made of the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan which was consulted on over two years ago.
Delivering a new bidding round for the North-East and Moray Just Transition Fund.
Continuing the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme, for communities to develop renewable energy projects.
Working with the UK Government to reform the consenting process through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.

Whilst significant new sources of renewable electricity, and associated supply chains form the backbone of this green industrial revolution, the thorny issue of protecting and saving existing jobs in Scotland’s traditional oil and gas and refining sectors is harder for the Scottish Government to tackle, not least because many of the levers which might be pulled are reserved to Westminster. Key to this is securing UK Government support for Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS), and for the nascent hydrogen economy.

The PfG describes the Acorn CCUS Project as being a “keystone project for the Scottish economy”, and Grangemouth as being “central to Scotland’s industrialised future”, in particular due to “the immediate opportunities identified by Project Willow”. The First Minister noted in his speech ongoing attempts to find investors to “ensure a green industrial future for the Grangemouth site”, and linking investment in Acorn with saving Grangemouth, stating that:

“A key element in the success of this work is the development of carbon capture in Scotland, which is why it is now vital that the UK government provides support not only to carbon capture projects in England, but also to the Acorn project in Scotland’s northeast.

The Scottish Government has previously committed up to £80 million to make this happen if the UK Government, in turn, made the commitments necessary for the project to progress. Given the importance of this project for the Scottish economy, given its place at the very heart of the green reindustrialisation that is my ambition, and I trust the ambition also of all parties in this chamber, my government is now willing, as part of a wider package of investment in industrial transformation, to remove that cap and increase the amount of Scottish funding that is available to make Acorn a reality should the project be given the go ahead by the UK Government.”

By removing the £80 million upper limit, the Scottish Government hopes to “enable the UK Government to approve the Acorn project in the UK Spending Review” thus unlocking “billions of pounds in investment at key industrial sites across Scotland”. It is worth noting that the Scottish Government has not specified how much they plan to increase their investment by, how it will be used to support the Acorn Project, or what specific action by the UK Government will unlock the investment.

Some commitments are also made in relation to decarbonising heat in buildings and tackling fuel poverty. None of these are new.

The Natural Environment

In the PfG, the Scottish Government commits to “Establishing statutory targets to improve biodiversity”. This relates to the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill, currently being scrutinised at Stage 1, which establishes framework powers for Scottish Ministers to introduce statutory biodiversity targets.

The Bill would require Scottish Ministers to introduce a suite of targets, in regulations, within 12 months of the relevant provisions coming into force. Scottish Government officials told the RAI Committee that commencement of the duty to introduce targets (and thus introduction of actual targets) is likely to be a decision for the next Administration i.e. legal targets are unlikely to be in place this Parliamentary session.

The Scottish Government’s ambition to halt biodiversity loss by 2030 (aligned with goals set in the UN Global Biodiversity Framework), is recognised as a highly challenging goal given the complex nature of tackling the drivers of biodiversity decline. SPICe highlighted tackling the nature crisis as a key scrutiny challenge for the Scottish Parliament in Session 6, and this is likely to continue into the next term, when the detail of proposed targets is likely to be developed.

Peatland restoration and woodland creation targets are key aspects of the Scottish Government’s climate and nature policies. The PfG commits to “increasing the scale and pace of peatland restoration to at least 12,000 hectares, up from a current target of 10,000, this year and creating at least 10,000 hectares of woodlands – which will include over 4,000 hectares of native woodland”.

While the aim to restore 12,000 hectares of peatland represents an increase in ambition from the goals in the last PfG (which set out an aim to restore 10,000 hectares), these levels do not align with the Scottish Government’s climate plans. In the 2020 Climate Change Plan update (CCPu), the Scottish Government committed to increase new woodland creation from a target level of 12,000 hectares per year in 2020-21 to 18,000 hectares in 2024-25. The peatland restoration target in the CCPu is 20,000 hectares per year. Both targets were considered to be off track in the last available CCP monitoring report, reflecting long-standing challenges in meeting these targets. This raises questions around how targets in these areas will be approached in the forthcoming CCP expected later this year.

Notably, the PfG does not include any indication that the Scottish Government intends to legislate to ban the sale of horticultural peat in the remainder of this session. Phasing out the use of peat in horticulture is a long-standing Scottish Government commitment, it was consulted on in early 2023, and the Scottish Government told the Scottish Parliament in March 2024 that its hope was to legislate for a ban before the end of the Parliamentary term.

The PfG commits to “Extending our Nature Restoration Fund in 2026/27 to enable funding of a further round of multi-year projects to help deliver the priorities set out in our Biodiversity Strategy”. The Scottish Government committed in 2021 to a multi-year Nature Restoration Fund of at least £65 million from 2021 to 2026. As at October 2024, around £55 million had been allocated according to the Scottish Government, and £18 million was allocated in 2025/26 Scottish Budget.

This appears to be a new commitment to extend the Fund beyond 2026.

The PfG does not refer to the Scottish Government’s previous commitment to establishing at least one more National Park in this Parliamentary session. NatureScot has recently consulted on the proposal for a new National Park in Galloway and reported to the Scottish Government on its findings on 5 May 2025 (the day before the PfG was published), so it is perhaps unsurprising that the PfG did not include an announcement on the next steps in this area.

Notably, the PfG did not include any announcements in the circular economy and waste policy area – although key interventions such as the forthcoming circular economy strategy are not expected until 2026. One area the Scottish Government had committed to prioritise this session was how to tackle single-use beverage cups, including whether or not to introduce a single-use charge (i.e. similar to the carrier bag charge, using new powers in the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024). The Scottish Government consulted on a potential single-use charge in 2024. It is unclear if this will be taken forward in this Parliamentary term.

Rural Affairs

The PfG notes that the Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill will be introduced before summer recess. This is following the consultation on crofting law reform which took place in 2024, informed by the Scottish Government’s 2021 National Development Plan for Crofting. The proposals covered include both changes and simplifications to crofting law; topics in the consultation included entry to crofting, crofting communities, use of common grazings, strengthening residency and land use as well as enhanced Crofting Commission powers.

Agricultural Transition

The PfG declares that the Scottish Government will be investing an additional £5 million in Scotland’s food and drink strategy and £5 million to support food processing and marketing. Alongside this, the PfG notes the Scottish Government will be delivering reformed direct support payments to support sustainable food production. These changes were made under regulations in February, meaning that farmers and crofters seeking to access direct payments have to complete two of the plans or audits that fall under the whole farm plan by 15 May 2025. No penalties will be applied to basic payments this year if farms fail to comply but conditionality may be increased in 2026.

This signals the start of broader changes to agricultural payments. The Agricultural Reform Route Map specifies that, in 2026, Greening payments will be changed to form the enhanced tier support. These changes will be made by regulations later this year and are the next step in a move towards a four tier agricultural support payment framework initiated by the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024.

The PfG also notes that the Scottish Government will be publishing the Rural Support Plan, which is expected to set out the plan for agricultural support over the next 5 years. The Rural Affairs and Islands Committee took evidence from the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity earlier this year, scrutinising the fact that changes to agricultural payments have been made before the rural support plan has been laid before parliament.

Transport

The headline transport announcement in the PfG was the permanent scrapping of peak fares on ScotRail services from 1 September 2025. This follows a pilot removal of peak fares which ran between 2 October 2023 and 27 September 2024 and resulted in an additional ScotRail subsidy requirement of up to £40 million. The pilot was ended following an evaluation of its impact which concluded that it had “…been somewhat successful in meeting the objectives of increasing awareness of rail and improving access but has had minimal impacts on overall car travel and has tended to benefit those on higher incomes within the Central Belt.”

While several major trunk road projects are mentioned in the PfG, such as A9 and A96 Inverness-Nairn dualling, there is no mention of the significant public transport capital projects identified as priorities for investment in the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2). These include the development of a Clyde Metro, a south-east Scotland mass transit system, and Aberdeen rapid transit system. The success of the PfG commitment to a new policy statement and target for car use reduction, following the recent abandonment of the target for a 20% reduction in car use between 2019 and 2030, will be reliant on the development of such alternatives to car travel, along with traffic demand management measures.

It is also worth noting that a significant portion of the A9 dualling programme is contingent on the Scottish Government deciding, later this year, to use of the revenue funded Mutual Investment Model (MIM). Any decision not to proceed with MIM financing is likely to have implications for the delivery of A9 dualling by 2035, given constraints on Scottish Government capital budgets and commitments to other road projects, public transport, and active travel infrastructure developments.

Heat in Buildings

The Scottish Government consulted on proposals for a heat in buildings bill in November 2023. On 3 April 2025, the Acting Minister for Climate Action, Alasdair Allan, announced a revised approach for the bill that “moves away from penalising individuals, and instead commits to collective action.”

In particular, the plan involves the establishment of a government target for decarbonising heating systems by 2045, provisions to promote heat network development and powers to set minimum energy efficiency standards for owner-occupiers and non-domestic premises.

The consultation proposal to require anyone purchasing a home to install a clean heating system in a property within a specified period of time after completion of the sale will not be taken forward at this time.

The Minister also said that regulations, made under existing legislation, would introduce a minimum energy efficiency standard in privately rented homes.

High Quality and Sustainable Public Services

Health

The NHS was front and centre of the 2025-26 PfG. In fact, the First Minister said the programme was published earlier than normal as it ‘allows a clear year of delivery on the NHS’.

The document breaks the health proposals into two main categories:

A healthy NHS
Renewal and reform

In relation to a healthy NHS, the PfG has a heavy focus on increasing capacity and reducing waiting times and lists. The document runs through a long list of commitments but they may look rather familiar as much of it was debuted in March’s NHS Operational Improvement Plan.

This includes one of the central messages in the statement around GP access and the ‘8am lottery’ to make an appointment. The First Minister pledged to address this by delivering an extra 100,000 appointments in GP surgeries.

These extra appointments will be delivered through something known as an ‘enhanced service’. These are services that involve GPs opting in to do work that gets paid over and above their normal contract. As such, the main challenge may be getting GPs on board at a time when their capacity is already stretched.

However, the First Minister also reminded Parliament that this year’s budget increased the share of health funding which goes to GPs and primary care. He also reiterated the target to increase GP numbers.

In relation to the renewal and reform proposals, there were no plans for significant structural reform of the NHS, but some highlights included launching the first version of the health and social care app and the establishment of a National Care Service Advisory Group (despite the demise of the much wider-reaching National Care Service Bill).

There was also a commitment to publish the ‘Service Renewal Framework’ before the summer. This will set out a ten-year plan to deliver the health and social care vision. Time will tell how radical any renewal proposals will be.

In relation to health legislation, the First Minister announced plans to introduce a Bill to improve the regulation of non-surgical cosmetic procedures. However – conspicuous by its absence – was a Bill to reform the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000.

This was one of the first acts to be passed by the Scottish Parliament and it has been under review for some time. However, delays to the new Bill were announced last week due to the consultation highlighting complexities around compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights.

School Education

Under school education, the PfG highlighted a number of existing policies or interventions. These included:

Scottish Attainment Challenge
Funding to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels
Working with local government and teaching unions to deliver a reduction in class contact time “at pace”
Implementing the 2024 Relationships and Behaviour in Schools Joint Action Plan.

The PfG also noted the continuing work on the Curriculum Improvement Cycle, the Education (Scotland) Bill which is currently at Stage 2, and work on changes to school qualifications. The PfG said the Government “will set out a single combined timeline for this reform in June 2025, providing clarity about next steps for the education system”.

In relation to supporting pupils with additional support needs, the PfG highlighted the £29 million in the 2025-26 budget to support “the recruitment, retention and training of the ASN workforce”. It also said that it would hold a “data summit with all local authorities in Scotland on Additional Support for Learning” to help improve the consistency of “identification, support and reporting of children’s needs at a local level”.

Justice

The PfG did not contain any new criminal justice Bills. Instead, the following initiatives were announced:

a comprehensive assessment of the law in relation to non-fatal strangulation
a consultation on reforms to the parole system
a consultation on revising the current legislation on Football Banning Orders.

The Misogyny Bill, which was announced in the PfG in 2023-24 and also included in the PfG last year, is not within this year’s PfG. The Bill followed on from the work of an independent Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland Working Group. The working group’s 2022 report recommended legislating to create:

a statutory misogyny aggravation
an offence of stirring up hatred against women and girls
an offence of public misogynistic harassment
an offence of issuing threats of, or invoking, rape or sexual assault or disfigurement of women and girls online and offline.

The omission of a Misogyny Bill was announced prior to the publication of the PfG and the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs wrote to the Criminal Justice Committee on 2 May 2025 setting out the reasons for this omission. She stated that there was “insufficient time for a Bill to be finalised and introduced in this session” due to the fact it was “a complex area of policy and law”, the “recent decision of the Supreme Court on the meaning of ‘women’ in the Equality Act 2010” and “the short time left in this Parliamentary session”.

During the First Minister’s PfG speech to Parliament he stated:

“Regrettably I do not believe there is sufficient parliamentary time to make progress through a standalone Bill which I would plan to bring forward at the start of the next Parliament. We will however take the action we can in this Parliament by adding sex as a protected characteristic to existing hate crimes legislation to protect women and girls and by taking further steps in our policy to tackle unacceptable abuse of women and girls in our society.”

The protected characteristic of sex will be added to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, so that women and girls have the same protections as other groups protected by that Act, by way of an SSI. It is subject to the super affirmative process and will therefore allow for consultation.

In the context of a continuing high prison population there were commitments to:

change the eligibility criteria for home detention curfew
provide funding for the next delivery phase of new HMPs Glasgow and Highland
work with justice partners to strengthen alternatives to remand
scope the feasibility of new specialist models of imprisonment for groups such as older and younger people.

On the civil justice side, the proposed legislative programme in the PfG includes the Contract (Formation and Remedies) Bill which takes forward the Scottish Law Commission’s recommendations on the reform of contract law in Scotland. In addition, the PfG refers to a Digital Assets Bill which “will clarify the status of digital assets as property in Scots private law” (e.g. certain crypto assets). This follows the recommendations of an Expert Reference Group to the Minister for Business in November 2024 and a Scottish Government consultation following that (the responses to that consultation were published on the Scottish Government’s website in February 2025).

Equalities

A commitment to introduce a Bill on ending conversion practices in Scotland has been delayed.

The PfG in 2022-23 reaffirmed a commitment to introduce a Bill on ending conversion practices in Scotland. The PfG in 2023-24 said there would be a consultation on legislative changes to end conversion practices. A consultation was undertaken at the start of 2024, but the PfG for 2024-25 said that the Scottish Government will work towards “complementary approaches across the UK” and that it “will prepare legislation for introduction to the Scottish Parliament should a UK-wide approach not be achievable”. This appeared to be linked to the plans set out by the UK Government to introduce a draft Conversion Practices Bill, as set out in the King’s Speech 2024.

However, there has been little information on the development of a Conversion Practices Bill from the UK Government since the King’s Speech in July 2024. In his statement on the PfG for 2025-26 the First Minister said:

“Conversion Practices that seek to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity are harmful and abusive. Over this coming year, we will seek to work with the UK government to deliver a legislative ban across England, Wales and Scotland. But if agreement is not possible, we will publish legislation in the first year of the next parliamentary term. Members of the LGBTQI+ community should have no doubt that we will work with them to protect and defend their rights.”

In terms of equality policies more generally, there are continued commitments to work on existing strategies and delivery plans that focus on:

Gender equality – through development and delivery of an Equality Strategy for Women and Girls
Disability equality – improving access and support through the Disability Equality Action Plan
Race equality – through the launch of the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland
Refugees and asylum seekers – establishing a new Integration Support Service to ensure refugees, people seeking asylum, and other forced migrants, can access the support they need when they need it, within the scope of devolved competence.

Unusually, there is no mention of action to prevent and eradicate violence against women and girls, such as through the Equally Safe strategy. It has been mentioned in each previous PfG of the current administration, since 2021. It seems quite an oversight not to mention Equally Safe, especially given that the Misogyny Bill is not being introduced this year (see above in the justice section).

In the PfG in 2020-21 the Scottish Government said it would develop an equality and human rights mainstreaming strategy. Each subsequent PfG has referred to the mainstreaming of equality and human rights. The Scottish Government has now consulted on the strategy and the 2025-26 PfG commits to publishing a mainstreaming framework which will include an action plan and toolkit. It says this will be “complemented by enhancing the effectiveness of the Public Sector Equality Duty as it operates in Scotland”, a line that is repeated from the 2024-25 PfG.

There are newer commitments on:

The recent UK Supreme Court judgment – For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers. A Scottish Government working group is considering the judgment’s impact on policies, guidance and legislation “to ensure we are ready to take all necessary steps when the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) publishes its revised Code of Practice and updated guidance.”

Creating safe spaces for the LGBTQI+ community. This will be achieved through funding to tackle discrimination and uphold the human rights of this group, and progressing actions within the Non-Binary Equality Action Plan.

Human Rights

Proposals to incorporate economic social and cultural rights (ESC rights) into Scots law have been under consideration for at least ten years (see the SPICe briefing ‘Economic, social and cultural rights – some frequently asked questions’). Following the work of an advisory group, “the First Minister’s Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership” which recommended legislation, and then the work of the National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership, the PfG for 2023-24 said that the Scottish Government would introduce, “our world leading Human Rights Bill.”

The Bill was not introduced and was not part of the PfG for 2024-25 (see the SPICe blog ‘The Human Rights Bill – why has the Scottish Government not legislated and what happens next?’). The Scottish Government said it was still committed to taking forward the Human Rights Bill, but not until the next Parliamentary session.

The current PfG provides no details of work undertaken or any recommendations but does indicate a continued commitment where it says that the Scottish Government is “developing legislation to incorporate certain international human rights treaties into Scots law, working with stakeholders to refine proposals, and laying the groundwork for effective implementation.”

Outcomes

The PfG makes one reference to the National Performance Framework (NPF) stating:

“So much of our national progress is built on partnerships across business, communities, and the public sector – working together towards a shared vision. In the coming year, we will further cement this collaboration on our long-term vision – working with stakeholders to reform our National Performance Framework, to set out the kind of Scotland we want to build for current and future generations.”

This reflects the position that, following last year’s statutory review of the National Outcomes, and the Finance and Public Audit Committee’s inquiry into the NPF, the Scottish Government has committed to a period of more fundamental reform of the National Performance Framework.

Pending that more fundamental reform, no immediate changes will be made to the NPF and the NPF website, which had previously monitored progress against indicators and outcomes has been archived. The Scottish Government states that:

“The current 11 National Outcomes are still in operation as is the duty (Community Empowerment Act) on public bodies ‘to have regard’ to them.”

The Legislative Programme

The PfG sets out which Bills will be introduced in the coming parliamentary year. These are covered, where relevant, in the portfolio sections above.

In total the PfG sets out the Scottish Government’s intention to introduce 8 new Bills over the next Parliamentary year (compared to the proposal to introduce 14 in last year’s PfG). Two of these 8 Bills were originally referenced in the Government’s Year Four Programme and will be introduced before summer recess at the end of June 2025.

These new Bills are in addition to the 14 Scottish Government Bills which Parliament is already considering.

The new Bills proposed in the PfG will focus on the following areas:

Building Safety Levy (a year four commitment to be introduced before summer recess)
Crofting and Scottish Land Court (a year four commitment to be introduced before summer recess)
Budget (No. 5)
Children and Young People (Care)
Contract (Formation and Remedies)
Digital Assets
Heat in Buildings
Non-surgical Cosmetic Procedures

Conclusion

The 2025-26 PfG contains few new announcements and instead focuses on a number of previously announced commitments and reaffirming existing priorities. In addition, a number of commitments made in previous PfGs have not been taken forward and are now absent.

The most eye catching commitment is perhaps the abolition of peak fares for Scotrail travel. This final PfG of the Parliamentary Session sets the starting gun on the countdown to next year’s Scottish Parliament election.

SPICe will continue to support Parliament’s scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s policy and legislative programme during the final twelve months of the Parliamentary session ahead of the election in May 2026.

SPICe Research