Compare the Parties: 2021 Scottish Parliament Elections

SNP:

• An independence referendum once the immediate COVID crisis has passed (p.5).
• Run annual Citizen’s Assemblies (p.12).

Scottish Conservatives:

• Repeal the Referendum Act to remove the ability to push through an independence referendum (p.53).
• Introduce Mackay’s Law, allowing the public to recall MSPs who have broken the law, grossly undermined trust or failed to contribute to Parliament for more than six months (p.53). 

Scottish Labour:

• Further devolution to Holyrood, including borrowing and employment rights, not a second independence referendum (p.30).
• Clean up Holyrood Commission to consult on the changes needed to strengthen the parliament’s ability to hold the government to account and restore faith and trust in Holyrood (p.30).

Scottish Liberal Democrats:

• Work at a UK level to reform the UK to a federal future (p.42).
• A new Contempt of Parliament rule to hold any minority governments to account (p.42).

Scottish Greens:

• A referendum on independence within the next Parliamentary term (p.51).
• Campaign to re-join the EU (p.51).

SNP:

• Freeze income tax rates and bands, increasing thresholds by a maximum of inflation (p.4).
• Invest an additional £500m to support new jobs and reskill people (p.5).

Scottish Conservatives:

• £500 skills grant for all adults to spend on training each year (p.3).
• At least 25% rates relief to businesses in 2022-23 (p.8).

Scottish Labour:

• Everyone under 25 who is out of work, guaranteed a public sector role for an average of 6 months (p.10).
• Abolish the council tax and replace it with an alternative based on property values and ability to pay (p.25).

Scottish Liberal Democrats:

• 2,000 paid graduate internships with small businesses (p.19).
• £5,000 Scottish Training Bonds to help people change careers (p.19).

Scottish Greens:

• Support the transition to a four-day week with no loss of pay (p.8).
• Scrap Council Tax and introduce a 1% tax on assets above £1m (p.12).

SNP:

• Invest £33bn over the next 5 years in the National Infrastructure Mission (p.5).
• Bring Scotrail into public ownership (p.5).
• Decarbonise rail services by 2035 (p.5).

Scottish Conservatives

• Full fibre broadband rollout to every household and business by 2027 (p.3).
• Reopen rail lines and stations where there is an economic case to do so (p.19).
• Invest £200 million in a Road Maintenance Fund to repair potholes (p.20).

Scottish Labour:

• Free bus travel for under 25s, invest in low emission buses (p.23).
• Increase active travel spending to 10% of the overall transport budget,  encouraging people to get out of their cars (p.41).

Scottish Liberal Democrats:

• Reopen railway lines and move away from fossil fuels on the network (p.26).
• Give the public confidence in electric vehicles by progress towards a network of rapid chargers (p.27).
• Create single through-tickets and swipe cards that work for buses, trains and ferries across Scotland (p.26).

Scottish Greens:

• £3.2bn in public transport, including the including the first stage of Rail for All, a 20-year, £22bn programme to renew railways (p.19).
• Ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2026 (p.21). 
• Deliver a reinvigorated national cycling and wheeling network, including active highways (p.20).

SNP:

• Increase NHS Frontline spending by at least 20% (p.4).
• 4% average pay rise for NHS staff (p.5).

Scottish Conservatives:

• At least an additional £2bn for the NHS (p.31).
• New multi-year pay deal (p.31).

Scottish Labour:

• Increase staff and processing capacity in cancer screening centres to clear the backlog of appointments by the end of 2021/22 (p14.).
• Establish dedicated mental health A&Es in every health board area, integrated with suicide prevention and substance misuse services, to support people in crisis (p.15).

Scottish Liberal Democrats:

• An ‘urgent plan’ to put recovery first for the NHS (p.11).
• Train more mental health specialists for community centres, hospitals, workplaces and schools (p.11).

Scottish Greens:

• Support an increase in salaries for nurses of 12.5% (p.65).
• Commit at least 11% of health spending to general practice by the end of the next Parliament (p.65).

SNP:

• Double the Scottish Child Payment to £20 per child per week (p.4).
• Build a wraparound childcare system (p.5).
• Free school breakfasts and lunches for every primary school pupil (p.4).

Scottish Conservatives:

• Free school breakfasts and lunches for children in primary and special schools (p.49).
• Free wraparound childcare for children in Primary 1-3 (p.29).
• National student mental health action plan (p.30).

Scottish Labour:

• Increase the Scottish Child Payment to £20 a week by the end of 2022 (p.25).
• Establish a Staying Connected fund to offer grants towards TV licences or internet for those over 75 (p.25).
• Extend free school meals to every primary school pupil (p.71).

Scottish Liberal Democrats:

• Play based education until age 7 to give our children a flying start, based on the Nordic model (p.5).
• More childcare from the age of 2 (p.5).
• Double the Scottish Child Payment to £20 per week (p.39).

Scottish Greens:

• Raise the school starting age to seven and introduce a kindergarten stage for 3-6 year olds (p.58).
• Deliver free school meals all year round for all pupils and a free breakfast to those who want or need it (p.57).
• Double the Scottish Child Payment to at least £20 (p.75).

SNP:

• Recruit 3,500 teachers and classroom assistants (p.5).
• Invest £1bn to close the school attainment gap (p.5).
• Provide every pupil with their own laptop device and internet connection (p.60).

Scottish Conservatives:

• 3,000 more teachers and dedicated STEM teacher in every primary school (p.27).
• £120m investment in a two-year catch up premium (p.28).
• £25m national tutoring programme (p.28).

Scottish Labour:

• Provide each young person with a Personal Comeback Plan (PCP), based on an individual assessment (p.18).
• To prevent further Covid-19 outbreaks in schools we will prioritise vaccinations for teaching and school staff (p.18).
• Give every young person a Summer Comeback Pass to provide free access to sport, transport, outdoor activities and culture (p.19).

Scottish Liberal Democrats:

• Review of workloads and career opportunities for teachers, and a minimum starting salary of £30,000 (p.5).
• Serving teachers put at the heart of the SQA and Education Scotland (p.5).
• Every qualified teacher guaranteed a job, to cut class sizes (p.5).

Scottish Greens:

• Recruit 5,500 additional permanent teachers, an increase of 10% (p.58).
• Restructure National 5s to ensure adequate teaching time (p.59).
• Ensure funding parity for college and university students (p.62).

SNP:

• Deliver a further 100,000 affordable homes by 2032 (p.4).
• Decarbonise the heating of 1 million homes by 2030 (p.5).

Scottish Conservatives:

• £10.8 million over the next Parliament to deliver a national Housing First Programme (p.50).
• 60,000 new affordable homes, with two thirds of these being new social housing (p.23).

Scottish Labour:

• Upgrade all homes to at least an energy efficiency rating of C or higher by 2030 and, where possible, zero carbon by 2045 (p.21).
• Build 200,000 zero carbon social homes over ten years (p.27).

Scottish Liberal Democrats:

• Build 60,000 affordable homes to help address homelessness (p.39).
• Help to Renovate loans to bring derelict homes back into use (p.39).

Scottish Greens:

• £3bn in warm and zero-carbon homes and buildings (p.7).
• Support the building of 70,000 homes by 2026 and a further 50,000 homes between 2027 and 2032, 70% of which should be for social rent (p.25).

SNP:

• Undertake a review of Scotland’s prosecution system (p.28).
• Appoint a Victim’s Commissioner to provide an independent voice for victims and witnesses (p.34).

Scottish Conservatives:

• Introduction of a Victims Law (p.39).
• Prioritisation of local policing (p.38). 

Scottish Labour:

• Increase the number of officers in local divisions by at least 500 (p.27).
• Reform legal aid, roll out specialist domestic abuse courts and introduce a specialist sexual offences court (p.27).

Scottish Liberal Democrats:

• Better support for police officers and civilian staff in their roles (p.29).
• Cut crime and improve rehabilitation services for people leaving prison (p.30).

Scottish Greens:

• Improved police complaints system (p.85).
• Increase funding for victims’ groups (p.86).

SNP:

• Double the Climate Justice Fund to £24m over 4 years (p.68).
• Implement a Deposit Return Scheme (p.68).

Scottish Conservatives:

• £25 million Cleaner Seas Fund – to fund projects that will take harmful products including plastics out of the seas (p.41).
• Increase new tree planting in Scotland to 18,000 hectares annually by 2024-25 (p.41).

Scottish Labour:

• Plant at least 15,000 hectares of trees a year and increase peatland restoration to 20,000 hectares each year (p.21).
• Ensure that every business that wants to work with the public sector has a clear carbon reduction plan and a commitment to achieving net zero (p.22).

Scottish Liberal Democrats:

• Move one million homes to zero emission heating by 2030 (p.34).
• New national parks, and new woodlands close to where people live (p.34).

Scottish Greens:

• £895m to restore Scotland’s natural environment.
• A commitment to sourcing at least 70% of the onshore wind supply chain domestically.

SNP:

• ‘Percentage for the Arts’ scheme to require a percentage of the cost for construction projects be spent on art commissions (p.53).
• Support tax relief for culture and creative industries (p.54).

Scottish Conservatives:

• A half price entry programme for heritage sites for the remainder of 2021 (p.26).
• An Arts Bill to ensure local authorities carry out a minimum level of cultural planning and engagement (p.26).

Scottish Labour:

• Establish a Cultural Rucksack Programme to ensure that every child has access to artistic and cultural experiences (p.110).
• Introduction of new qualifications in filmmaking for SCQF levels 4, 5 and Higher (p.110).

Scottish Liberal Democrats:

• Create graduate internship opportunities in the arts, paying for graduates to start their careers within art and cultural companies (p.26). 
• We will extend the discounts offered to young people with a Young Scot card to more sports centres, cultural and arts venues (p.18).

Scottish Greens:

• Support local authorities to develop resourced Cultural Plans in collaboration with local residents, artists and industries.
• Create a cultural leadership scheme to ensure that people from diverse backgrounds are heard at an early stage across Scottish Government cultural policy making.