Quick guide to key Scottish Conservative policies

The Scottish Conservatives have more policies than ever before.

We’ve got plans to rebuild Scotland’s economy, create jobs, restore Scottish education, renew our transport network, improve public services, and toughen up the justice system.

We’re building Scotland’s real alternative to the SNP.

Here are just some – 93 – of our key policies:

Jobs and the economy

• Deliver a full year’s business rates reduction for 2022-3 to support businesses to recover from the pandemic and prevent a cliff edge increase in taxes
• Introduce rapid retraining courses to help people who have become unemployed acquire skills to help them find work quickly
• Create job security councils to help people who lose their jobs back into skilled work quickly
• Introduce an Enterprise Bill which would establish an economic development agency in each region of Scotland
• Introduce a Right to Retrain for every Scottish adult to incentivise lifelong learning and help the newly unemployed
• Establish a Scottish Exporting Institute to act as a hub of trade expertise in Scotland
• Establish export hubs in UK cities to support investment and export opportunities both to and from Scotland
• Abolish the SNP’s planned short term lets licensing scheme as it does not put local choice at its heart and fails to distinguish between established accommodation providers and the recent boom in short-term lets
• Connect every home to full fibre broadband by 2027 as many people are now more reliant on their home internet connection to work and do business

• Seek to ensure that Scots do not pay more income tax than those in the rest of the UK
• Help councils scrap parking charges in public car parks to encourage more people to support our high streets to recover
• Introduce a ‘Scotland First’ procurement policy for public services to support the Scottish economy

Justice

• Introduce a Victims Law to put victims of crime at the heart of Scotland’s justice system
• Abolish the Not Proven Verdict to end its disproportionate use to acquit the accused in sexual offence cases
• Implement Michelle’s Law so victim’s voices are heard when criminals are considered for release by parole boards and prison governors
• Implement Suzanne’s Law so killers remain in jail if they do not reveal the location of their victim’s bodies

• Overhaul the Victim Notification Scheme to make it more sensitive to victim’s needs
• Boost police capital funding to upgrade police stations, cars and crime fighting equipment
• Introduce whole life sentences so that Scotland’s worst criminals are never let out of jail
• Abolish automatic release so that criminals are forced to demonstrate they’ve improved their behaviour before being released
• Introduce a Local Policing Act to ensure more police officers are patrolling our streets and increase the input of the local community into policing decisions

• End the SNP’s effective ban on prison sentences of 12 months or less so that criminals can be punished appropriately for their crimes
• Increase punishments for criminals who purposefully target women
• Double fines for anti-social behaviour to help protect local communities

Local Government

• Introduce a Local Government Bill to ensure fair funding for our councils
• Allow councils to exempt high street and town centres from paying business rates to stimulate the local economy
• Give local communities a veto so that local planning decisions cannot be overturned by the Scottish Government

• Relax planning laws to allow for the re-development of long-term unoccupied properties
• Redevelop brownfield sites in towns and cities as new park areas to increase the number of urban green spaces

Education

• Return to Scotland’s traditional school system and strong exam system as they are the best way to fairly assess the achievements of pupils
• Re-join international education studies and comparisons so that we can learn from the best practice of other countries
• Create a Rural Teacher Fund to attract teachers to work in remote areas
• Introduce a dedicated STEM teacher in every primary school to improve participation in STEM subjects

• Allow all pupils to take at least seven subjects in S4 to increase their future opportunities
• Establish a new school inspector, independent of government to improve school standards
• Allocate £1 billion of attainment funding directly to schools to help close the gap between richer and poorer pupils

• Set up a £35 million national tutoring programme to provide one-to-one or small group tuition for children who need the most help to catch-up after the pandemic
• Introduce a special support payment for university students in receipt of benefits so that young people from all backgrounds have the opportunity to achieve a higher education qualification

Training and apprenticeships

• Replace the current school leaving age of 16 with a new skills participation age of 18 and introduce paid internships for every S4 pupils so that there is a focus on long-term employability
• Ensure that all Apprenticeship Levy funds are spent on apprenticeships, remove limits on the number of funded apprenticeships available and guarantee off-the-job training for apprentices aged under 25, to rebalance the relationship between academic and vocational education
• Bring employers, universities, and colleges together to establish Institutes of Technology to deliver modular courses and higher-level technical training in specialist areas

Rural

• Double the Rural Housing fund to £50 million to increase housing in our rural communities and tackle depopulation

• Make it illegal to charge more for postage to rural areas so people there will not face higher delivery charges
• Increase fixed penalties and maximum fines for litter and fly-tipping to help protect green spaces
• Reinstate the Young Farmers and New Entrants Start Up Grants to encourage new entrants into the sector
• Introduce a new Animal Welfare Bill to improve the welfare and quality of life for animals

• Ban the use of electric shock collars on dogs

Transport

• Improve key roads including the A77, A75, A82, A90, A96, and A1
• Expand the M8 to three lanes
• Build a bypass for the A83 Rest and Be Thankful

• Introduce a Road Maintenance Fund to repair potholes
• Improve rail links between Aberdeen and the Central Belt, take forward plans for a direct rail line between Perth and Edinburgh, duel the Highland main rail line and extend the Borders Railway to Carlisle
• Ensure every Scottish city has a cycle network designed for commuting to encourage active travel
• Abolish the Workplace Parking Levy so commuters are not unfairly punished for driving to work

Net Zero

• Subsidise the installation of electric vehicle charging points, review barriers to their installation outside flats and require all new large housing developments to incorporate electric charging points to make electric vehicle ownership more accessible
• Introduce a Circular Economy Bill which would set new targets for reducing the use of raw materials and drive the rollout of best practice to encourage waste reduction

• Bring forward a Nature Bill to strengthen environmental protections for Scotland’s natural environment and animals
• Expand Marine Protected Areas in Scottish waters and pilot the introduction of Highly Protected Marine Areas to protect our sea life

Energy

• Support future oil and gas projects including the Cambo field to protect our energy supply and keep bills down

• Work with the UK Government to develop carbon capture technologies to reduce emissions produced by fossil fuels
• Expand our use of nuclear power to secure our future energy needs

Covid

• Replace Test and Protect with a smaller, representative sampling testing system as we move into a new phase of the pandemic.
• Continue to reduce the self-isolation period as Covid moves to endemic status

• Oppose the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) Bill as it represents an unwarranted power grab by the SNP
• Establish a Business Recovery Council to ensure the interests of businesses are central to rebuilding Scotland after the pandemic

Health

• Introduce an NHS Future Funding Bill which would enshrine a ‘double lock’ to guarantee the NHS budget will increase each year by Barnett consequentials or 2% more than inflation, whichever is highest
• Set up specialist long Covid clinics in every health board to support patients suffering with this condition

• Increase the number of medical school training places and student nursing places to tackle the shortage of NHS staff
• Introduce a Local Healthcare Guarantee to restore a presumption against centralisation and protect local services
• Take immediate action to replace Edinburgh’s Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion and reinstate consultant-led maternity services at Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin
• Train more independent prescribers to enable pharmacists to treat a wider range of common conditions which would otherwise need to be treated by a GPs
• Double SportScotland’s budget to fund grassroots and elite sport, supporting our athletes and training the next generation
• Fully implement Frank’s Law – which ensures that adults under the age of 65 may claim free personal care – to provide free personal care for those who need it
• Develop a new national plan for palliative care to ensure everyone can access the support they need whether they pass away in hospital, a hospice, a care home or at home
• Introduce a legal Right to Recovery from addiction to give people a right in law to access a range of different options for treatment and services.

Mental Health

• Increase mental health funding to 10% of the frontline health budget to tackle the backlog in cases
• Develop a national student mental health action plan for universities, colleges and apprenticeship providers, so that we can address the disparities in the support available to different types of students

Constitution

• Repeal the Hate Crime Act to protect freedom of speech in the home

• Reduce the size of the Scottish Government so that the taxpayer gets more value for money
• Lead a cross-party commission to strengthen the Scottish Parliament’s role in scrutinising the Scottish Government
• Repeal the Referendum Act to remove the threat of the SNP trying to hold a second independence referendum
• Introduce Mackay’s Law to allow the public to recall MSPs who have broken the law, grossly undermined trust or failed to contribute to Parliament for more than six months

Social Justice

• Improve carers allowance by introducing a taper rate to prevent carers losing 100% of their allowance if they earn £1 over the £132 per week limit on earnings
• Allow payments of Carers Allowance to continue for six months after bereavement
• Eradicate rough sleeping in Scotland by 2026 and introduce a Help to Rent scheme to help homeless people access private rented sector accommodation

• Create a government-owned company to help provide meaningful employment opportunities for people with disabilities
• Bring forward an Armed Forces and Veterans Bill to further incorporate the Armed Forces Covenant in law for public bodies like local government and the NHS

Housing

• Create a Help to Renovate scheme to help owners make homes more energy efficient, and spend over £2.5 billion on energy efficiency in homes and buildings to help Scotland reach its net zero targets
• Ban the use of combustible cladding in Scotland to ensure homes are fire-safe
• Increase the threshold for paying Land and Building Transaction Tax to £250,000, so that everyone can buy their own home

• Allow councils to create local Land and Building Transaction Tax discount schemes
• Restore funding for the Help to Buy scheme to make home ownership possible for more people