THE Programme for Government is an opportunity for John Swinney to set out his priorities for the next parliamentary year and beyond.
What will be on the legislative agenda, and what isn’t, will give us an idea of the Scottish Government’s priorities over the next 12 months.
Coming at the start of this five-year parliamentary term, we’ll see how they will implement the manifesto pledges made ahead of the Holyrood election in May.
So let’s take a brief look at what things to look out for on Tuesday, September 1, on the first day that MSPs return from recess.
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Independence
Last week, the Scottish Government published its draft referendum bill, but as Holyrood doesn’t have the powers to hold a referendum – as the Supreme Court ruled in 2022 – this has left the issue in limbo, to say the least. We told how SNP members were furious that it appeared the party had blocked debate on the strategy to secure a referendum at the party’s upcoming conference in Aberdeen in October.
With Swinney taking the constitution brief under his portfolio, The National will be looking out for any indication of how the First Minister seeks to break the deadlock on the issue in the face of a Westminster Government which has refused to engage on it.
Public Service Reform
While more details are likely to be set out in the Scottish Budget later this year, one of the big issues facing the Scottish Government is filling the £5 billion “black hole” in the public finances. There is a well-known funding gap of around £4.7bn by 2029-30. This is the difference between what ministers want to spend and the funding available to them.
Around £2bn of this is expected to come from social security, but a large chunk also comes from rising workforce costs, particularly in the NHS. Ivan McKee, as Cabinet Secretary for Public Service Reform, has been tasked with making decisions in this area, so it will be interesting to see if the First Minister gives any indication of where the cuts will fall.
Unison’s Scottish secretary Lilian Macer said that Swinney has an opportunity to “put people before cuts” by investing in public services.
“Scotland has the longest NHS waiting lists since devolution and thousands of nursing vacancies,” she said. “Our social care is in crisis, with a workforce crying out for investment. Scotland’s councils are being warned that they are in danger of becoming financially unsustainable.
“The Scottish Government’s plans to cut a further 20,000 public service jobs and cut £1billion from the budget will cripple services that are already struggling. Staff can’t continue to do more with less.
“We need to invest in early intervention to prevent costly crises; deliver NHS workforce planning that brings down waiting times; and fix low pay, which is the single biggest barrier to resolving the care crisis and ending delayed discharge in our hospitals.”
Cost of living
One of the biggest issues facing Scots is the cost of living, with Swinney pledging to introduce a food price cap in supermarkets for essential food and drink items. Despite serious opposition from retailers, the First Minister has insisted the plans remain unchanged, and had previously promised to introduce the cap before the end of 2026.
Swinney has previously said that Holyrood would not ordinarily have the powers to bring in the policy, but insisted it could do so under public health provisions because the cost-of-living crisis has “got so tough it is now impacting upon our nation’s nutrition”. The SNP has accepted that the UK Government could block the plans using the Internal Market Act (IMA), so it will be interesting to see how they look to bring this into force.
Childcare
Swinney also promised more than £500 million in spending to boost childcare for families, while the Scottish Greens have urged the Scottish Government to go further and match their pledge for universal free childcare. Currently, families in Scotland can receive 1140 hours of funded childcare after a child turns three, however in some local authorities this only comes in the term after the child’s third birthday. There have been calls for this to be amended so that all families can access the funding from the child’s third birthday, while others have urged them to go further.
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Israel boycott
In September 2025, the Scottish Parliament voted for a full boycott of Israel and companies complicit in the genocide in Gaza. But we revealed how the Scottish Government admitted no briefings were compiled after the Holyrood vote about how to implement the boycott, and it took a freedom of information request for officials to issue a new procurement note. The SNP have also been accused of breaching the boycott by signing up Barclays to support its upcoming bonds programme. The Scottish Greens have accused ministers of failing to “turn words into action” and doing the “bare minimum” to implement the boycott.
“The Programme for Government must be the moment that changes,” Scottish Greens MSP Patrick Harvie said. “We need clear commitments and a plan to end Scotland’s complicity in the systemic abuse of Palestinians.
“That means reviewing existing contracts, ending relationships with companies identified as complicit in illegal settlement activity, and giving councils the powers they need to make ethical procurement decisions.”
AI data centres
The biggest issue of the summer, the number of hyperscale AI data centres proposed for Scotland has seen a boom in the past year. In August, Public Finance Minister Hannah Mary Goodlad directed planning authorities to notify ministers of any new AI data centre applications, and that plans for sites in Fife and Edinburgh will have to publish Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA). However, campaigners have called for not only this to be extended to all applications for AI data centres, but for a moratorium to be put in place and for a definition of what a “green” data centre actually is.
Friends of the Earth (FoE) Scotland revealed evidence that suggested the number of data centres in Scotland could triple to meet UK demand.
Kim Pratt, senior campaigner for FoE Scotland, said: “The Scottish Government has an opportunity to stand up to Westminster by introducing a moratorium on data centres in its plans for the next year, which will be published on Tuesday. Councils need guidance on these decisions so they can protect people and nature until proper safeguards on these monster developments are put in place.
“The UK Government and its bodies are pushing data centres and their polluting and harmful impacts north of the Border, creating an unfair burden for the people of Scotland. Planning powers are devolved so the UK Government has no right to do this.”
Climate change commitments
Environmental campaigners have a long list of asks for the Scottish Government when it comes to tackling climate change. WWF Scotland have asked for an extension of funding to the Nature Restoration fund, help for farmers to move towards climate resilient methods of growing food and a just transition for workers and communities as Scotland transitions to green renewable energy.
Stop Climate Chaos (SCC) have called for affordable bus travel across all parts of Scotland to reduce climate and local air pollution, with Swinney already under pressure over his pledge to introduce a £2 bus fare cap across the country. There have also been calls for a wealth fund to be established using offshore wind revenue, like Norway’s sovereign oil wealth fund, and a private jet tax. Both WWF and SCC have called for a Heat in Buildings Bill to be published in the first year of this parliament.
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Lang Banks, director of WWF Scotland said: “The choices made in this Programme for Government will help determine whether Scotland can deliver on its climate ambitions while building a fairer, more resilient future.”
Banning LGBT+ conversion practices
At the last First Minister’s Questions (FMQs) before Holyrood broke up for the May election, Swinney vowed to bring in legislation to ban LGBT+ conversion practices if the SNP were re-elected after being pressed by a former committee chair.
It comes after the Scottish Government said it would wait to see if the Westminster Government would bring in legislation that could apply across the UK, but it has so far only committed to publishing a draft bill that would only apply in England and Wales. Campaigners have urged the Scottish Government to make the commitment to introducing a bill in the Programme for Government.
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