Category: Campaign Responses

Animal welfare is a key priority for the SNP.  The SNP Government has acted on the expert scientific and ethical advice given by the Animal Welfare Commission, a body of leading animal welfare experts, veterinary surgeons, and the head of the Scottish SPCA which are responsible for developing evidence led expert recommendations on issues relating to animal welfare and sentience. If re-elected, the SNP will continue to work alongside animal welfare experts, vets and relevant stakeholders to create meaningful legislation which seeks to reduce harm and unnecessary suffering to animals – especially in animal research which, for now, remains a reserved matter under the control of the Tory Government at Westminster. I, alongside the SNP, will support farmers to produce more of our own food needs sustainably and to farm and croft…

Respiratory diseases pose a huge challenge for Scotland’s healthcare, economy and society. One of the SNP’s top priorities is to support the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of all lung conditions. The SNP Scottish Government has a partnership with the British Lung Foundation on bold research into new treatments.  Previously, under an SNP government, lung cancer mortality rates have dropped by 11%. Fewer than 1 in 4 adults now smoke, and the number of 15-year-olds who smoke regularly has dropped by more than two thirds in the past decade. Despite these improvements, Covid-19 as a respiratory disease has made clear that much more is to be done to improve access to healthcare, prevention of disease, and overall improvement of the lives of people living with lung conditions.  The SNP Government developed…

I believe that care for children with life-shortening conditions is an important priority for the SNP to foster.  Scotland is already widely recognised for providing high-quality palliative and end of life care. Therefore, if re-elected, the SNP will ensure children with palliative care needs receive the highest quality care, equally across Scotland, underpinned by annual public funding of at least £7 million to ensure children’s hospice care is sustainably resourced.  We will appoint a new National Clinical Lead for Palliative and End of Life Care for Scotland, who will be responsible for overseeing a national strategy for palliative and end of life care that takes a whole system, public health approach.  In Government, the SNP has been providing financial support for families, including through the game-changing Scottish Child Payment, which together…

I know the last year has been hard, with many businesses having to close their doors during lock down. As Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, I saw first-hand the negative impact that Covid-19 had on small businesses. That is why the SNP will harness Scotland’s innovation and ingenuity to create jobs and drive economic recovery. In Government, the SNP has provided over £3 billion of support to businesses to help them through the pandemic. Now, as we begin to re-open our economy and society, many businesses will receive restart grants of between £7,000 and £19,500 at the end of April to help them prepare for re-opening. Retail, leisure and hospitality firms will also get 100% Business Rates relief this year. To keep overheads low, Scotland already has the lowest business…

Scotland faces the twin shocks of Covid-19 and Brexit. These shocks have and will continue to have a huge impact on our economy, jobs and livelihoods.  The challenge presented by climate change and the opportunities of digital economy remain as large as ever and, through all of this, the need to remain globally competitive is hugely important.  This is why the SNP are committed to a laser-like focus on economic recovery, investing in entrepreneurship, infrastructure and technology and creating good, new and green jobs. This cannot mean simply going back to the way things were.  Recovery must have sustainability, wellbeing and fair work built in from the outset.  In the first 6 months of Parliament, the SNP would deliver a new 10 year National Strategy for Economic Transformation, setting out…

The SNP is committed to advancing equality for LGBTI people, and promoting, protecting and realising the rights of every LGBTI person in Scotland. I am proud of our record in government on LGBTI rights and recognise that we need to continue tackling homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and discrimination. The SNP opposes LGBTI conversion therapy practices, which are discriminatory and proven to have a harmful effect on the mental health and wellbeing of LGBTI people. The new 2021-22 Scottish Budget’s £1.1 billion investment in mental health will have a positive impact for LGBTI people who have higher rates of attempted suicide, self-harm, depression and anxiety.  The SNP in government are putting equality and human rights at the heart of their response to Covid-19 and have acted to provide support to those groups…

A re-elected SNP Government will deliver a further 100,000 affordable homes by 2032 with at least 70% of these for social rent.  Furthermore, we will develop a new Rented Sector Strategy in 2021. This will provide greater protections from unreasonable rent increases and give people affordable choices when renting, and increasing protections for tenants. We will reform existing Rent Pressure Zone legislation to ensure local authorities can use it to directly address unreasonably high rents in localised areas. These changes will be incorporated in a new Housing Bill early in the next Parliament. We will introduce a new Housing Standard, set in law by 2025 to cover all homes ensuring that the quality of existing homes keeps pace with new homes. This Housing Standard will include repairing and safety standards, minimum space standards, digital…

It remains the SNP's policy of establishing a permanent Armed Forces Representative Body for the whole of the Armed Forces Community that would be run independently from Government to advocate and implement policies in the interests of current and former personnel and their families.  The SNP is committed to working with organisations like Poppy Scotland to reform the way that personnel's interests are represented and pursued.  In Government, the SNP has sought to help personnel use their experiences in the military to the best of their advantage, for example through continuing to fund the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework Partnership to map military qualifications against those which are recognised by employers in Scotland and expanding this work to look at Royal Navy Catering Services branches. Through the Affordable Housing Supply…

The SNP will continue to stand up for Scotland’s fishing in Holyrood and Westminster.  Scotland has over 60% of the UK’s fishing waters and an abundance of marine resources – we will treat these as a national asset to be protected, nurtured, developed and enhanced for the benefit of this and future generations.   The SNP will reform and streamline regulatory processes for fish farms so that development is more responsive, transparent and efficient.  At the heart of our new approach will be a new, single determining authority for farm consents, modelled on the regulatory regime in Norway. This will bring greater clarity, transparency and speed to the process, while working to Scotland's national maritime strategy. This is a proposal of the Salmon Interactions Working Group and has been welcomed by…

If re-elected, an SNP Government will work to ramp up our efforts to become a Net Zero nation by 2045 with significant and wide-ranging investments which will not only reduce our emissions, but will significantly improve our quality of life in Scotland. In Government the SNP has invested enormously in unlocking Scotland’s renewable energy potential. Last year, more than 97% of our electricity demand was met from renewable sources. By 2030 we aim to generate 50% of Scotland's overall energy consumption from renewable sources, and by 2050 we aim to have decarbonised our energy system almost completely. If re-elected, the SNP will aim to decarbonise the heating of 1 million homes by 2030, and ensure all new homes delivered by registered social landlords and local authorities will be zero emission…