Scotland’s Programme for Government: tough times and a new focus

Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government Shona Robison’s announcement of cuts of approximately £500 million to Scottish Government spending highlights the extent of this challenging backdrop. 

Further challenges include that there are only 18 months left until the 2026 Scottish Parliament election, leaving a short timeframe for the Scottish Government to deliver on its priorities, in addition to the fact that this is a minority government that will require support from other parties to pass legislation. We are hopeful that this will lead to a more collaborative and cooperative political process at Holyrood. 

Serving Scotland outlines the four key priorities that the Scottish Government will hold to this year:

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1. Eradicating child poverty
2. Growing the economy
3. Tackling the climate emergency
4. Ensuring high quality and sustainable public services

There is a clear attempt to focus on the most important issues that will improve the lives of people in Scotland and tackle inequalities by doing so. It’s notable how little Scottish independence is referred to in the document and there is a general sense of a moving away from potentially divisive issues. It could be the case that this is a reflection of the financial pressure and limitations that the Scottish Government is working under. This presents an opportunity in a new season for evangelical Christians across Scotland to work together and engage positively with our government on issues that we care about. 

The four priorities are largely in line with the issues we found evangelical Christians across the UK believe are the most important facing the country in our Thinking Faithfully About Politics research: the economy (1^st), poverty (2^nd), equality and justice (3^rd), cost of living/​inflation (6^th), climate (7^th). Therefore, there will be much within the legislative agenda that we can engage with as a membership. We’ve picked out a few of the most significant:

Poverty

We welcome the strong commitment to tackling poverty (and in particular child poverty) in the Programme for Government through a combination of economic growth and ensuring that those who need it are supported financially. There are huge opportunities for the Scottish Government to support churches and Christian charities working to tackle poverty in their communities, and we welcome the commitment to ​“invest in community-based youth work, focussed on reaching young people outside the classroom” — something that we as a community do every day.

Homelessness & drug addiction recovery

We welcome the renewed focus on homelessness and drug addiction recovery and we want to constructively push the Scottish Government to do all it can to reduce these deep societal harms which are at completely unacceptable levels in Scotland. The financial commitments to affordable housing and temporary accommodation alongside the National Mission on alcohol and drug deaths are welcome but we urge the Scottish Government to work with faith communities to do even more and make reducing these harms in Scotland a future world-leading success story.

Climate emergency

The commitments to tackle the climate emergency will benefit Scotland’s people as well as the natural environment – the Biblical mandate to steward the earth around us well is hugely important to us as Christians. We look forward to engaging with the Heat in Buildings Bill and we encourage the Scottish Government to do all it can with the finances committed to supporting the just transition in the North East and public transport. It is right that we support international climate action to support people in the Global South and the Climate Justice Fund is a welcome step in this direction.

Conversion practices

In quite a significant change from before, the Scottish Government has changed their approach to legislating on ending conversion practices:

“…Progressing our commitment to ending conversion practices in Scotland and work towards complementary approaches across the UK. We will prepare legislation for introduction to the Scottish Parliament should a UK-wide approach not be achievable. By strengthening the support and services available to victims and survivors of conversion practices, we will ensure inclusivity is at the heart of everything we do.”

Therefore, we do not expect the Scottish Government to bring forward legislative proposals on conversion practices anytime soon. The focus now turns to Westminster as the UK Government seeks to legislate for it across the UK. We have engaged significantly on this important issue over the past year on behalf of our membership to ensure that any potential legislation in this area is right for everyone in Scotland.

Commercial sexual exploitation of women & girls

Finally, we were disappointed that the Scottish Government has not made a specific commitment to legislating to tackle commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls, an issue which the Scottish Government can and should take action on as part of implementing the Equally Safe strategy. However, we look forward to engaging with the Misogyny Bill which will be introduced this year in the Scottish Parliament.

It is imperative that we pray for those in authority over us (1 Timothy 2) and we note the positive influence of faith that both First Minister John Swinney and Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes hold to and are informed by in their leadership. For us then, in seeking to live out the gospel by loving our neighbour (Mark 12:31) and doing justice (Micah 6:8), there is plenty that we can engage with in this new Programme for Government. 

Have a look at our Connect resource as a place to start, and on your behalf we will engage with the Scottish Government over the next year and through doing so, making Jesus known.