Some old, some new and some borrowed

AS NICOLA Sturgeon unveiled her plans for the next 12 months in Government, many onlookers couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu. She told MSPs she was presenting a Programme for Government that sets out a vision of a ‘healthier, wealthier and fairer’ Scotland.

But many of the key announcements in her 40-minute speech were largely a rehash of policies discussed at length previously. Indeed, some were even in last year’s programme.

The big focus this year is efforts to boost the economy, with £7billion to be ploughed into new schools, hospitals, housing, transport and low-carbon technology. This will partially be funded by using the Scottish Government’s borrowing powers of £350million a year to the max, but consideration will also be given to new private sector ‘profitsharing finance schemes’.

This is an idea borrowed from the Welsh Government, which introduced a ‘mutual investment model’ to deliver more than £1billion of projects.

The scheme is different to the controversial private finance initiative, which saddled public bodies with huge debts, but it will largely be a replacement for the previous private financing model.

In 2016, Miss Sturgeon’s flagship announcement was a scheme which would see the Government provide a ‘guarantee’ for up to £500million of loans to businesses. However, the Scottish Growth Scheme has come under attack for failing to distribute any money. Another key economic pledge yesterday was the Scottish National Investment Bank Bill. This was first unveiled exactly a year ago, and ministers set out earlier this year that it will receive up to £2billion of public funds over its first ten years. The legislation announced is the next step in its creation, the laws that will ‘formally underpin’ the bank.

The First Minister also said she would ‘liaise with key stakeholders’ this year before formally consulting on a new publicly owned energy company next year.

This was revealed last October at the SNP’s conference, when Miss Sturgeon told delegates: ‘The idea, at its heart, is simple. Energy would be bought wholesale or generated here in Scotland and sold to customers as close to cost price as possible.’

At the time, it seemed a somewhat rushed announcement with little detail and, 11 months on, there was nothing new, other than that the ‘preferred model’ would be announced this year.

Another consultation will look at votes for prisoners. The Government previously opposed the move but it seems to now be borrowing the idea from a Holyrood committee which recommended all inmates should get the vote.

Miss Sturgeon now appears to sit in the middle – she doesn’t back every prisoner getting a vote but is willing to consider giving some a say.

It will be dealt with in the Electoral Franchise Bill, alongside enshrining the rights of EU citizens to vote in Holyrood and council elections after Brexit. Other key announcements that were not exactly a surprise included a Non-Domestic Rates Bill which will strip charities of business rates relief, as previously recommended by former RBS chairman Ken Barclay.

Three main contracts will also be introduced to allow for the previously promised expansion for superfast broadband to all.

A crackdown on attacks on police dogs – the so-called Finn’s Law – was borrowed from the Tories, who have campaigned passionately on the issue.

And the flagship education promise of a Headteacher’s Charter, giving them powers over school budgets, staffing and the curriculum, was also part of last year’s Programme for Government, albeit part of a wider Education (Scotland) Bill which has subsequently been dropped.

With so little in the way of fresh policy, it is little wonder this has been branded by Ruth Davidson as ‘not so much a relaunch as a retread – and a hangover from last year’.