Scottish Parliamentary Elections- Responses from Political Parties

Scottish National Party

Aviation: If elected what steps will you take to support the aviation sector in Scotland and reassure our members and the communities where they live and work of the retention of well paid high quality employment and oppose the plans to deliver air traffic control remotely?

Globally, as well as here in Scotland, the aviation industry faces one of the longest recovery periods from the pandemic. The SNP have extended the 100% non-domestic rates relief for the aviation sector for all 2021/22 - the only country to do this in the UK - and we're also working with airports on route recovery, to help rebuild connectivity for business and tourism once we are able to safely lift travel restrictions. This will help win back routes and employment opportunities. We recognise the need to modernise Air Traffic Control to ensure more sustainable and reliable air services in the Highlands and Islands. We urge both HIAL (Highland and Islands Airports Ltd) and its staff to continue to play a constructive role as implementation of the project progresses.

Defence Sector Jobs: The contract for the construction of the new Royal Navy ships to support the carriers is currently ongoing. A victory for the joint BAE / Babcock team bidding for this work will secure thousands of jobs on the Clyde and at Rosyth well into the 2030’s. It will deliver a prosperity boost to both the UK and Scottish Governments in the region of £400m. If elected what steps will you take to ensure that this vital contract is awarded to Scottish yards and Scottish workers? The Scottish shipbuilding industry has near-peerless standards in the manufacture of the highest quality of state of the art frigates - while we welcome the work that is coming to Scotland through the construction of these Type 31 frigates, all it does is highlight the cheque that the Tories wrote in the run up to the 2014 Referendum but have still failed to cash.

Firstly, these Type 31 frigates are far smaller orders than the original promise of 13 Type 26 frigates, which the House of Commons Defence committee had heard would come to £1 Billion per ship, while Type 31s are estimated at only £250 million per ship. In short this is a significant short-changing. The Tories also promised to invest in a state of the art frigate factory in Scotland during the referendum, despite planning being put forward and stakeholders calling for this promise to be met they have failed to deliver on this promised investment in Scotland’s future. In addition to broken promises to the defence industry, the government have also continued, even accelerated, the closure of military bases in Scotland (including its last surface vessel navy base) – in the 2014 Referendum, Scotland was promised 12,500 personnel to be stationed permanently in Scotland: it has not increased, and remains well below 10,000. ONS figures indicate that there are around 9,000 people employed in defence manufacturing in Scotland (of which 6,000 work in shipbuilding). Scottish based defence jobs have been drastically cut in over the last 40 years. In 1981, there were 47,000 people employed in private sector defence related manufacturing associated industries in Scotland. Of these, 32,000 or 68% were in shipbuilding. While cuts to the industry have been deep, the Tories continue to waste billions of pounds on weapons of mass destruction while allowing investment in public services or key conventional capabilities to fall behind. Not only would the shipbuilding industry and the communities they are imbedded in benefit from more shipbuilding orders, but the Navy is currently not far off a historically small size and there are no surface vessels stationed in Scottish waters even though Scotland is where most of the UK's marine resources are and where over 60% of its territorial waters is - the strategic imperative for more ships is evident.

Latest revision of this document: https://library.prospect.org.uk/id/2021/00422 This revision: https://library.prospect.org.uk/id/2021/00422/2021-04-29 The SNP will always champion Scotland's shipyards for more work through defence contracts - we have vocally called for the Royal Navy's Fleet Solid Support Ships to be built in Scottish yards, and the government has since reconsidered whether to open these contracts up to international tender (something that we vocally opposed).

Fair Work: If elected how will you strengthen the work of the Fair Work Commission and ensure that fair work underpins the change to a more digital and remote world of work? We want Scotland to be the best place to live, work, invest and do business. We believe that fair work is the foundation for this. Covid has highlighted that too many people are still stuck on exploitative contracts, often zero-hours, that leave them with little security. Without the powers of independence, we are limited in what steps we can take, but where we can act to improve employment security and enhance the quality of work, we will. Fair Work First: Our Fair Work First programme makes adoption of fair work practices part of the criteria for winning public contracts and receiving grants. It uses the financial power of government to make fair work the norm. We will now build flexible and family friendly working into the programme, learning lessons from working practices during the pandemic to make it easier for women, particularly single parents, to return to work and also encourage a more equal share of childcare responsibilities. The principles of Living Hours - ensuring workers get the hours they need to make ends meet are reflected in Fair Work First good practice and promoted through Fair Work First where this applies to grants or procurement. If re-elected, we will go further and support a specific accreditation programme for Living Hours in the same way we have supported Living Wage accreditation.

Four Day Week: Covid-19 changed the way we work almost overnight. As we recover from the pandemic, we want to do more to support people achieve a healthy work-life balance. We also want to keep the total number of people in employment high. As part of this, we will establish a £10 million fund to allow companies to pilot and explore the benefits of a four day working week. We will use the learning from this to consider a more general shift to a four day working week as and when Scotland gains full control of employment rights. We will also identify additional employment opportunities and assess the economic impact of moving to a four day week. More widely, we will support a review - in partnership with trade unions and businesses - of how working practices could and should be adapted to meet the needs of the future economy. Devolution of Employment Law: During the pandemic, some companies have used fire and rehire tactics to undermine wages and conditions. This is unacceptable. The SNP has been pressing the UK government to act but it has so far refused to take the necessary steps to ban these exploitative practices. We will continue to call for the devolution of employment law to allow us to act, but in the meantime we will do all we can with our limited powers to protect employees from these practices in Scotland. We will review our Fair Work First criteria for contracts and government support grants to include specific reference to fire and rehire tactics. Support for the Creative sector: If you are elected what steps will you take to continue and enhance the support provided to the creative sector to ensure job protection and creation, and to assist our freelance members to stay in the sector?

Culture is central to who we are as a nation. We have always valued culture and creativity, but the pandemic has demonstrated more than ever how vital it is to our wellbeing, mental health and sense of belonging. A ‘Percentage for the Arts’ and Fair Funding We want to create a more sustainable funding model for culture which benefits organisations and freelancers. Learning from countries such as Ireland and the Netherlands, we will establish a “Percentage for the Arts” scheme which will create a requirement for a percentage of the overall cost of a construction project for new public buildings, places or spaces to be spent on community art commissions. We want to increase the work available for freelancers and creative practitioners by creating cultural commissions for more work that is fairly paid. We will consult on initial percentages of 0.5% for projects under £5 million and 1% for those over £5 million capped at £1 million for any individual project. We estimate this would raise £150 million per year for the arts once fully up and running. To aid future planning and recovery, we will agree 3 year funding settlements for Scottish Government core funded cultural organisations. We will also continue our culture recovery

2 funding to get support to those who continue to be significantly affected by Covid related restrictions. We will support the co-ordination of Scottish commissioning and create a Scotland Touring Fund for Theatre and Music as part of economic recovery, helping to take live performances directly into alternative community venues and revitalising year-round tourism.

To recognise the role culture and heritage can play in achieving our climate change ambitions, we will increase access to capital funding to help ‘green’ cultural infrastructure across Scotland. Expanding Our Programme: We will expand our Culture Collective programme, giving artists and communities the length and breadth of Scotland even more opportunities to collaborate on creative activity, supporting a sustainable creative recovery from the pandemic. We will establish our first regularly funded Youth National Performing Company, to showcase the creative gifts of Scotland’s young people, and help grow the talent of tomorrow. We will create a new £2 million fund for public artwork which broadens the range of representation in public spaces of Scotland’s history and culture, in particular the contribution of women and minority ethnic communities. Improving Support to Creative Industries Recognising their vibrancy as well as their potential for domestic and international growth, we will work with Scottish Enterprise and Creative Scotland to improve the business support available to creative industries to ensure a better breadth of expertise is available for the many different parts of the sector. We will support tax relief for culture and creative industries including the games sector, high-end and children’s TV production, animation, film, theatre and orchestras. We will also support the digital capabilities of artists and creative businesses with a £1 million programme of workshops, mentoring and courses. We will call on the UK Government to work with the EU to deliver free movement for performers, artists, musicians and freelancers, and ensure there are no barriers to those looking to tour and perform in Scotland and the UK. And we will utilise our international network to better support Scottish- based artists to work internationally, and help to facilitate new cultural connections between Scotland and the rest of the world. Public Services: If you are elected what steps will you take to support public sector workers and ensure that those in the sector who kept the country functioning do not pay a disproportionate price? The SNP will always champion fair pay for our public sector workers. That is why - unlike in England where the Tories imposed a public sector pay freeze - our public sector workers will receive a pay rise this year. We have offered a fair and affordable pay settlement to our public sector workers to whom we owe so much through the pandemic, particularly the lowest paid. It continues our commitment to the real Living Wage which has increased to £9.50 per hour, and provides:

• a guaranteed cash underpin of £800 for those earning £25,000 and below - delivering a pay increase of more than 3% to the lowest earners. • a progressive above-inflation headline pay increase of 2% for those earning over £25,000 and up to £40,000 • a one per cent pay uplift to those earning over £40,000 and up to £80,000 with a capped increase of £800 for those earning above £80,000 to reduce the overall income gap

Our approach to public sector pay will continue to focus on sustainability, reducing inequalities and promoting wellbeing. Digital Infrastructure: If you are elected what steps will you take to improve the digital infrastructure of Scotland and what steps will you take to stop companies cutting digital jobs across Scotland?

Our £579 million investment in the expansion of superfast broadband means every home and business in South and Central Scotland will have access by 2023, with work in the North of Scotland completed in the next five years. Through the Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme we will provide funding of up to £5,000 to help homes and businesses obtain superfast broadband in areas where providers may not ordinarily go, ensuring that everyone can access and benefit from this world-leading digital capability. By the end of 2022, 16 new subsea fibre cables will have been laid to Scottish islands. We will use

3 this to support the creation of gigabit islands with full 5G services and connectivity from mobile providers, testing the concept on 8 islands in 4 local authority areas. In this Parliament, on top of the 11 already built, we will invest £25 million to install at least 39 masts to provide mobile coverage in remote rural and island communities.

All of these programmes will require a range of skilled jobs working in some of the most remote parts of Scotland and we will work hard to ensure that these jobs are based across Scotland so local communities benefit. We expect Scotland to get its fair share of the UK Government’s £5 bn investment for gigabit capability and will press for £300 million of this to enable Scotland to reach 85% gigabit capable by 2025. We would welcome the support of Prospect and other unions to ensure that we get our fair share as this will help us keep and create the digital jobs they want

Heritage: If elected what steps will you take to support Scotland’s built and natural environment and to make both more accessible to the public? We place a high value on the quality and diversity of Scotland’s historic environment, and the important contribution it makes to a modern Scotland. Our historic environment is internationally renowned, and rightly so. It's important that we recognise the inspiration which our heritage can provides us with, and how this helps to create a sense of place. We must not lose sight of the vital role which our historic environment will play in shaping Scotland’s future. It is imperative that it is passed on to benefit future generations. As stated previously, we want to create a more sustainable funding model. To aid future planning and recovery, we will agree 3 year funding for our core funded cultural organisations, including Historic Environment Scotland. This is a substantial commitment which will remove uncertainty and ensure organisations can focus on their significant contribution to Scotland, and the international culture community.

To recognise the role culture and heritage can play in achieving our climate change ambitions, we will increase access to capital funding to help ‘green’ cultural infrastructure across Scotland. We will deliver 'Our Place in Time: the Historic Environment Strategy for Scotland' and invest in the sustainable development of Scotland’s historic estate to protect and conserve, whilst supporting our pathway to net zero. Heritage and historic sites are an important part of our tourism industry. We know that the pandemic has been particularly difficult for our tourism industry, but we are committed to rebuilding Scotland’s vital tourism sectors so that we can share all that Scotland has to offer when the time is right. When it is safe to do so, we will launch a campaign to encourage people to support local tourism in Scotland. We will develop a global campaign for Scotland, increasing ‘Scotland is Now’ activity and launching a brand marque for Scotland, to help boost tourism, migration, and investment.

To support the recommendations of the Tourism Recovery Taskforce, we will create a £25 million fund to help build a strong recovery, including providing thousands of vouchers for short breaks and days out to carers, people with disabilities and families on low incomes, and creating a Net Zero Pathway for industry, focussed on protecting and enhancing our natural assets and delivering a low carbon future for our visitors and communities.

We will also invest £10 million in wider initiatives including the Lossiemouth East Beach footbridge, the Inverness Castle Project, rural hotel infrastructure, and the deployment of Seasonal Rangers to encourage responsible tourism in rural hot-spots.

4 Scottish Labour Party

If elected what steps will you take to support the aviation sector in Scotland and reassure our members and the communities where they live and work of the retention of well paid high quality employment and oppose the plans to deliver air traffic control remotely?

Our air industry has suffered through the Covid-19 pandemic. Scottish Labour will take a four nations approach to bringing our aviation industry back, working with the UK Government to ensure that routes are reopened. We will retain air discount schemes for the Highlands and Islands. We will work with the sector to implement a targeted support package for the industry which will be tied to commitments to support jobs, and good terms and conditions within the sector. Key to the recovery plan will be a commitment from the industry that any support will be predicated on reducing CO2 emissions and combating the climate emergency. We will oppose plans to deliver air traffic control remotely.

Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer visited Edinburgh Airport this week to talk to pilots and staff across the sector about recovery. If elected how will you strengthen the work of the Fair Work Commission and ensure that fair work underpins the change to a more digital and remote world of work? An economy that works for everyone requires better wages and more secure employment, and greater redistribution of the wealth generated. Too many jobs are insecure, without guaranteed hours or income. That insecurity then flows through our economy, holding it back – from the stress it puts on working people to the pressure it puts on family finances. The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated Scotland’s existing labour market inequalities.

While the Scottish Government’s Fair Work Action Plan sets out a range of ambitions, it doesn’t fully deploy the Scottish Government’s existing powers. Scottish Labour will go much further, developing a Good Work Plan, which will not merely encourage good work, but will require compliance. Good Work will promote the quality of work and fairness in line with trade unions. We will use all the levers of government to revitalise collective bargaining, including sectoral bargaining, coupled with a more robust social dialogue and the promotion of trade union membership. These have taken on a renewed importance in the context of digital and remote working and distance from colleagues and the workplace. Scottish Labour’s Better Business Pledge will be a key part of the Good Work Plan, requiring all businesses that benefit from public procurement to commit to using no zero-hours contracts or similar insecure work practices, paying the Scottish Living Wage and producing a clear carbon reduction plan. A Scottish Monitoring Agency will ensure that procurement conditions are achieved. We will bring employers, unions and government together under the framework of a Social Partnership Act. Support from government provides an opportunity to shape a fairer economy. Recovery deals for each sector should include a range of financial and other support to business. In return, they should sign up to enforceable Good Work obligations, including working towards commitments on pay, conditions, equal opportunities, carbon reduction, skills and collective bargaining.

If you are elected what steps will you take to continue and enhance the support provided to the creative sector to ensure job protection and creation, and to assist our freelance members to stay in the sector?

The pandemic has had a devastating impact on already fragile creative industries. The arts and culture sector needs a long-term recovery plan that is able to respond and support the sector. It was one of the first to shut and will be among the last to fully open. We need to better recognise the role our cultural and creative industries have in contributing to our economy and society. Just 0.2% of the Scottish budget is spent on culture and we get so much back for so little investment. We will establish a baseline for cultural spending that reflects its value and delivers a greater share of Scottish Government budget. Scottish Labour also supports the creation of a national framework that protects and expands the essential cultural,

5 social infrastructure in our communities. This includes local museums, historical sites, battlefields, libraries and archivist services. We will also deliver a programme of support for working-class history. All areas of Scotland should have a vibrant arts offer which is accessible, supported and employs people from a diverse range of backgrounds. We support the introduction of an Arts Bill which places a statutory responsibility onto local authorities to deliver an arts plan supported by a fair funding deal for local authorities. Creative festivals in Scotland have grown significantly over the last decade. Their survival will be, in part, dependent upon a strong return to tourism, and additional interim support will be necessary. As part of any recovery deal, we must ensure that festivals, big and small, are affordable and accessible to everyone.

The film and TV sector is growing and the demand for content is high. Scotland must be able to compete in this market and Scottish Labour will work to increase Scottish-based production and broadcasting, and for more opportunities to develop those skills including through clear routes into the industry. We support the introduction of new qualifications in filmmaking for SCQF levels 4, 5 and Higher, which is similar to the Northern Irish qualification, opening up more opportunities for young people to have a pathway into the industry.

Further to this, the social security system we would build would secure the wellbeing and human rights of everyone and seek to guarantee a Minimum Income Standard that no one would fall below. If you are elected what steps will you take to support public sector workers and ensure that those in the sector who kept the country functioning do not pay a disproportionate price?

Staff across our public sector have kept Scotland’s services running throughout the pandemic, from managing the shift to online working to keeping food supply chains operating. At a time when we have all had to rely heavily on our public services the Brexit transition has then created additional pressure.

Key workers deserve our thanks, not real terms pay cuts. The Scottish Government’s cuts to local government have seen almost £1bn of funding stripped from council budgets since 2013/14 making it increasingly harder for staff to receive the pay they deserve. Further to the recent Public Sector pay policy, Scottish Labour believe the public sector need a pay deal that addresses historic under-funding and low pay.

Scottish Labour’s Jobs for Recovery guarantee will also support capacity building in our public services, helping to relieve the pressure on the existing workforce who have delivered under pressure for months on end. The efforts of public sector staff have been important for seeing us through and we can not have a strong, sustainable and fair recovery without a well-resourced and rewarded public sector. If you are elected what steps will you take to improve the digital infrastructure of Scotland and what steps will you take to stop companies cutting digital jobs across Scotland? As the pandemic has highlighted, we must speed up the infrastructure and access to full-fibre broadband, to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and encourage flexible working options, particularly in rural and disadvantaged areas. We would support the development of Scottish data hubs and local supply chain manufacturing.

We will also improve digital infrastructure in our public services and tackle digital exclusion. In education, we will enhance digital training for staff and will offer digital devices to all pupils in Scotland. The demand for digital equipment for disadvantaged students massively exceeded the supply from the limited government pandemic funding. We will offer a digital device to every pupil to close the digital divide and consider targeted support for households who do not have broadband access. We want to embed the benefits of digital healthcare with increased access to virtual consultations, better data sharing, and online booking of appointments.

6 In order to keep digital jobs in Scotland, we need investment in training as well as infrastructure. Scotland needs to renew our pipeline of digital skills with a radical reform of the education and training approach to enable the future success of our economy. Over the last 14 years we have fallen behind leading nations. Scottish Labour would renew our national approach to the digital skills pipeline to inspire, educate, train and nurture digital talent. As part of this, Scottish Labour will reinvest in Further Education and give it equality of status with other education routes, ensuring it is a route to Higher Education for those who wish to progress. This includes the guaranteeing ability to study part-time, through distance learning, and with opportunities for those with additional support needs and those living in rural areas. We will strengthen distance learning by developing an Open College through colleges collaborating across Scotland, building on Scottish Labour’s innovative creation of the Open University. We also support lifelong learning, including union learning, to ensure workers are not left behind in a period of technological change. Our new Scottish Skills Benefit will offer everyone who is unemployed, along with those currently on furlough, a £500 grant for retraining while retaining their benefits or furlough payments. Individuals who are unemployed would also be eligible for a further £750 in income support to reflect time spent in training or study.

If elected what steps will you take to support Scotland’s built and natural environment and to make both more accessible to the public? Our plan to enhance our built and natural environment and public transport system would tackle the climate emergency and reduce inequality. We will increase active travel spending to 10% of the overall transport budget, giving priority to encouraging and enabling people to get out of their cars, onto bikes, increasing walking and public transport use for better health and a cleaner environment. This will include assessing and developing safe cycling routes. We will also use the planning system in urban areas to plan for less car use, making all residential areas low traffic neighbourhoods by reducing speeds and volumes of through traffic while maintaining local access for those who need it. We will consult on changing the default speed limit on restricted roads to 20 mph, to ensure safer speeds where people live, work and play. We will create neighbourhoods where people can access all the services they need within a 20-minute walk. We will introduce free bus travel to under 25s and invest in the manufacture and widespread introduction of accessible low-emission buses

We will also implement a gendered approach to transport infrastructure, ensuring women’s safety, convenience and affordability are properly addressed. After the long Scottish Government delays we will reprioritise and expand the implementation of low emission zones in Scotland, and we will explore the implementation of minimum air quality standards around our schools.

We sought to amend the Planning Bill to give individuals and environmental organisations the right to challenge decisions that will severely impact the environment. Scottish Labour will also introduce carbon impact assessments into all policy processes. Planning of new developments and regeneration of existing areas should be around green infrastructure linking communities and habitats, allowing easy access for walking and cycling and incorporating a variety of landscapes including trees, pedestrian and cycle pathways, play areas, food growing spaces, and flood mitigation measures.

Scotland already plants a significant amount of trees, but this must increase from the existing 11,000 hectares a year to at least 15,000 hectares a year as recommended by the Committee on Climate Change. This should be matched by an increase in peatland restoration to 20,000 hectares each year, alongside measures to end commercial peat extraction. As well as seeking to build 120,000 social homes over the next decade, Scottish Labour would develop a national strategy for housing and disabled persons, led by a disabled persons organisation. The strategy will include a 10% target for new social housing, with properties which are fully accessible both within the home and externally. People have the right to independent living - substantial investment is needed so that existing homes can be adapted to make this possible.

7 The contract for the construction of the new Royal Navy ships to support the carriers is currently ongoing. A victory for the joint BAE / Babcock team bidding for this work will secure thousands of jobs on the Clyde and at Rosyth well into the 2030’s. It will deliver a prosperity boost to both the UK and Scottish Governments in the region of £400m.

If elected what steps will you take to ensure that this vital contract is awarded to Scottish yards and Scottish workers? The UK defence industry is world-leading and Scottish Labour will continue to work with Scottish manufacturers and unions to support innovation in this sector to ensure it maintains its highly skilled jobs and workforce. Scottish Labour will develop a bold industrial strategy that reflects the steps and required to secure contracts like the construction of the new Royal Navy ships. It wold have a strong focus on jobs and the skills development that would make Scotland an ideal location for defence sector jobs. As well as the delivering the Scottish Skills Benefit, Scottish Labour would reinvigorate apprenticeships across Scotland by targeting 5,000 new places in the next financial year, with subsidised wages to raise pay for all and working with local authorities to establish local ‘Share an Apprentice’ schemes.

The UK labour party has launched a buy British by default campaign for defence procurement and we will work with them to promote this campaign.

8 Scottish Liberal Democrats

Aviation

Our members work all across the aviation sector in Scotland, from air traffic management to front of house and security. Prospect members are key to both commercial aviation and domestic lifeline services. The aviation sector has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and our members face an uncertain future, both as a result of the pandemic and because of the unwarranted attempts by Highlands and Islands Airport Limited to move key well paid jobs from remote communities and centralise them.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have been the strongest supporters of the campaign to maintain air traffic control jobs in highlands and islands communities. Liam McArthur and Tavish Scott have been outspoken from the outset, highlighting that HIAL’s own analysis found that centralisation would be the riskiest and costliest option. After her by-election win in Shetland, Beatrice Wishart led a debate in Parliament on the issue.

Working with those on the ground, Scottish Liberal Democrats built a case and built the pressure to force HIAL to conduct an Islands Impact Assessment into the proposals. On publication, this showed exactly what we and those working in HIAL airports had been warning of all along – that the SNP proposals would have no positive impact on the communities, and the loss well paid skilled jobs would be catastrophic.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have made this a manifesto commitment. We will stop the Scottish Government-owned Highlands and Islands Airports from ripping off customers on parking charges and restore the local air traffic control functions that are being centralised by the SNP.

We will also work closely with the UK Government to make sure Scotland gets a good share of the benefits from its plans to research and invest in the production of sustainable aviation fuels and develop zero-emission aircraft.

Defence Sector Jobs

2020 saw the award to Babcock of the contract to build new Type 31 frigates at their Rosyth Dockyard, protecting many jobs at the yard for the medium term. This underlines the importance of defence sector jobs to communities across Scotland. Prospect members played a huge role in the successful completion of the construction of HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, and work across many other private and public sector defence contracts in Scotland.

The contract for the construction of the new Royal Navy ships to support the carriers is currently ongoing. A victory for the joint BAE / Babcock team bidding for this work will secure thousands of jobs on the Clyde and at Rosyth well into the 2030’s. It will deliver a prosperity boost to both the UK and Scottish Governments in the region of £400m

If elected what steps will you take to ensure that this vital contract is awarded to Scottish yards and Scottish workers?

Scotland has immense technical, scientific and engineering skills. Our aim is to make sure Scotland has a reputation as the most highly skilled and adaptable workforce in Europe. We will invest in education and new help worth up to £5000 to retrain and future-proof careers.

Manufacturing and engineering jobs have suffered under the SNP. The First Minister had her picture taken outside BiFab, backed by £52.4 million of government investment. Workers were made redundant 21 days after Keith Brown told them the takeover brokered by the government was “a very good day” for employees. We’ve seen similar stories in Lochaber where 2000 jobs were promised but

9 none appeared, and the signing of deal with the Chinese company SinoFortone that we were told was potentially worth £10 billion…but it turned out they only owned a pub near Oxford.

The pandemic has torn through our lives. Jobs have been lost, and careers are under threat. Ensuring we can make the most of new manufacturing jobs will be a critical part of the recovery. Opportunities cannot be lost as they have been before, victim to distraction or de-prioritisation. Scottish Liberal Democrats will put recovery first, and make sure there are no more wasted opportunities.

Fair Work

Prospect has a proud record of engaging with the Fair Work Convention / Commission. Early in the pandemic Prospect signed a ground-breaking Fair Work Agreement on Coronavirus with the Scottish Government as members of the STUC were instrumental in delivering an economy wide Fair Work agreement between the STUC and the Scottish Government.

The Fair Work agenda has been crucial to delivering the health, safety, wellbeing and incomes of hundreds of thousands of workers across Scotland. As the world of work changes as a result of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic there will never have been a greater need for workers voice and engagement.

If elected how will you strengthen the work of the Fair Work Commission and ensure that fair work underpins the change to a more digital and remote world of work?

We will adopt and extend the current principles of fair work.

Paying the living wage should be the norm. We support paying the Living Wage for all public services. We would use the powers of government to ensure it is rolled out further in the private sector too.

For example, we have long argued that the Scottish Government shouldn’t give hand-outs to companies that don’t pay the Living Wage. The SNP Government gave Amazon £5 million over a decade, despite it paying workers more than £1 less an hour than the Living Wage and concerns over working conditions at their base in Dunfermline. There is nothing fair about dishing out millions to multinational companies that pay low wages.

If you work hard, you should have a secure job with proper rights and fair pay. But employment rights and protections, such as holidays, pensions and paid sick leave, haven’t kept up with technology and economic changes.

It is also worrying that 1 in 10 teachers are now on short-term or zero hours. Willie Rennie raised their case at FMQs in March. He told of one teacher who is still temporary after six years, another who works in a café and another in a supermarket. Afterwards, more than 1,700 teachers on these precarious contracts wrote an open letter to the First Minister. They said they “cannot secure mortgages or car loans, plan maternity leave or make long term commitments due to the uncertainty of our employment”. People should be worried because these teachers are critical to the education bounce back. Scottish Liberal Democrats would introduce a teacher job guarantee to end the casualisation of the teaching workforce. Under our plan no teacher should be unemployed or feel underemployed come August.

Support for Creative Sector

Prospect has thousands of members working in the Creative Sector in Scotland. Many of our members work as freelancers and as such have suffered the double blow of seeing their working opportunities disappear during the pandemic, and being effectively shut out from the support of the UK Governments self-employed support scheme despite paying thousands of pounds in tax during their freelance careers

Prospect notes the work of Creative Scotland and the additional funding provided by the Scottish Government to assist our members in the sector during the pandemic.

10 If you are elected what steps will you take to continue and enhance the support provided to the creative sector to ensure job protection and creation, and to assist our freelance members to stay in the sector?

During the pandemic Scottish Liberal Democrats worked to help countless people whose incomes suddenly and completely evaporated overnight.

We worked constructively with the Scottish Government throughout the crisis to fix the gaps in systems, offering changes that have helped more people become eligible for support. We’ve helped persuade the UK Government to extend furlough and other schemes that have helped save vast numbers of jobs.

Jamie Stone MP especially has stood up for the 3 million Excluded, gathering together the fastest growing all party group in Westminster history to fight for those left behind by support packages. However, it remains the case that millions have been excluded from support. It’s one of the reasons we called for a Universal Basic Income during the first wave. It would have protected us all.

Scottish Liberal Democrats will put recovery first.

The creative industries and their performance spaces such as theatres were hit hard in the pandemic. We need to make sure that we don’t lose them during the recovery. Hundreds of people graduated in the summer of 2020 from courses in music, theatre and the arts, and in associated production and technical skills. In order to protect a vibrant and diverse cultural sector in Scotland we need to take urgent action.

We will earmark money for a new Show Must Go On Fund. This will have five-year objectives to create graduate internship opportunities in the arts, paying for graduates to start their careers within art and cultural companies, step up support for in-person performance with the aim to get more arts into more communities than ever before, to inspire and entertain.

We will also set up a government-backed cancellation insurance guarantee so that producers have confidence to begin preparations for new shows.

We will also work with UK Government to resolve problems in their Brexit policy which are now restricting people touring and performing abroad.

Public Services

Prospect members working in public services in Scotland have been at the forefront of keeping the country running during the pandemic, from Agricultural Inspections to Brexit transition.

Our members are quite rightly concerned that the cost of the Governments response to the pandemic may fall, as it has been seen before, disproportionately on public sector workers. We welcome the recent Public Sector Pay policy but a significant portion of our members will see a real terms pay cut as a result of it’s implementation.

If you are elected what steps will you take to support public sector workers and ensure that those in the sector who kept the country functioning do not pay a disproportionate price?

Day after day public sector staff have put their own lives at extra risk to care for others and keep people safe. We all joined the clap for key workers, but I believe politicians now have a responsibility to go beyond that and ensure this support and recognition is properly recognised too in the terms and conditions of staff, and especially those on low and middle incomes.

Government needs to work in partnership with public sector staff for recovery. We can't afford for critical sectors that we all rely on in times of crisis to be underfunded, understaffed or underpaid. Every penny must go towards putting recovery first.

11 Digital Infrastructure

The Coronavirus pandemic has almost certainly permanently altered the way we live our lives, the way we work, the way we educate and are educated, and the way we undertake our leisure activities with a huge increase in the use of digital. These changes will require significant investment to increase both the reach and capacity of high speed broadband.

Our members are both users of digital systems and workers in the digital technology sector. We recognise the steps taken to improve Scotland’s digital infrastructure, but we are also concerned that rather than using the benefits of digital to encourage the retention of high quality jobs in more remote communities we have seen employers like BT axing hundreds of jobs across the country and centralising work.

If you are elected what steps will you take to improve the digital infrastructure of Scotland and what steps will you take to stop companies cutting digital jobs across Scotland?

Modern digital connections are essential to give every part of Scotland the opportunity to thrive. We need high speed connections supported by reliable mobile phone signals to support businesses in every corner of the country. We’ve seen in the pandemic its essential for basic services like health and education too.

The pandemic has once again exposed the glaring connectivity gap as people struggle to work and learn from home. In Orkney, only 66% of households have access to superfast broadband (30Mbps and above), compared with 99% of households in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Reports from colleagues in Shetland still say that it can still take 6 hours to download a Netflix movie.

The broadband rollout could provide a significant workstream for workers, particularly in remote and rural areas. Scottish Liberal Democrats have already raised this in the Scottish Parliament, and Liam McArthur called on the Scottish Government to ensure that local contractors are utilised as the work rolls out.

Scottish Liberal Democrats will get superfast broadband and mobile phone signals to every part of Scotland, cutting the delays to some of the contracts which haven’t even started yet, and make sure that the work for the islands and remote parts of the country isn’t left until last.

We will establish a network of community connection managers. They will broker bespoke solutions for communities that fear they will be left out of the main programme by pooling the compensation vouchers they are entitled to and using further financial support from the main contract. We won’t leave it to a monopoly provider to give everyone cost-effective connections.

Heritage Like the creative sector Prospect has thousands of members employed across the heritage sector in Scotland, both in the state and third sectors. As a Union we welcome the steps taken by the Scottish Government to support workers in the sector, including the use of furlough and additional funding amongst others. Scotland’s built and natural heritage will play a vital role in kickstarting the post pandemic tourism industry.

If elected what steps will you take to support Scotland’s built and natural environment and to make both more accessible to the public? If Scotland is to recover from the pandemic we need every sector running at full capacity and to put recovery first. Not more barriers, red tape and uncertainty.

We hope that our tourism industry can look forward now to a brighter future, especially with more people choosing holidays in Scotland. We will take steps to give quality Scottish tourism the best possible opportunity to succeed. Tourism thrives where local communities feel able to welcome people from all over the world and show what Scotland has to offer. 15.5 million visitors were attracted to Scotland in 2018, spending almost £5 billion.

Locals understand the need to sustain tourism, which provides jobs and opportunities. But it can be a double-edged sword if it isn’t supported by infrastructure and local direction.

We will provide better car parking, charging points and signage, and create a new network of public toilets with waste disposal points. It will help ensure tourism is properly managed and visitors do not detract from the very things that bring people to these areas in the first place.

Our national parks take effective action to tackle the climate emergency and support biodiversity crisis. They promote mental and physical health and wellbeing, and boost rural employment. We support development of a new national strategy to designate more national parks, as part of a wider network of protected landscapes. We will also appoint an Outdoor Recreation Champion within government to help everyone in Scotland get the benefit.

13 Scottish Green Party

Aviation

If elected, what steps will you take to support the aviation sector in Scotland and reassure our members and the communities where they live and work of the retention of well paid high quality employment and oppose the plans to deliver air traffic control remotely?

There is no avoiding the fact that we do not consider the aviation sector to be in any way compatible with our aspiration of avoiding a climate catastrophe. But that does not mean it has no future; it means it has a very different future.

Firstly, we 100% support lifeline services, including those between the islands and the mainland. Secondly, we want to see governments working with the sector to deliver rapid emission reductions through innovation.

But we also recognise that we cannot go back to an unrestrained and profoundly unsustainable sector pre-pandemic. And let's be honest, that’s not going to happen anyway. According to a survey commissioned by the European Climate Foundation, 40% of business travellers across Denmark, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the UK responded that they expect to fly less post-pandemic when health restrictions are lifted entirely.

According to the survey commissioned by the European Climate Foundation, a group supporting net-zero carbon emissions, 40% from a total of 1,414 business travellers surveyed in Denmark, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the UK expect to fly less post-pandemic when health restrictions are lifted entirely.

The Scottish Greens are proposing a frequent flyer levy to help deliver this reduction in demand, but I urge you to look at the detail of this. An FFL actually means that the first flight anyone makes in one year would be exempt of duty, but it then escalates the more flights someone takes. Lifeline route flights would be exempted.

So the challenge for the industry is, in effect, down-scaling while delivering the technical innovation needed to cut the remaining emissions. Long-term security for workers and affected communities can be guaranteed without returning to the same levels of aviation pre-pandemic.

To ensure that the people that work in aviation, their families, and the communities dependent on the industry are not negatively impacted by the transition to a greener economy, we propose a managed process of economic change that is fair and equitable and that means no one is left behind.

We will offer funded opportunities for people to retrain and re-skill for employment in other sectors and create thousands of green transport jobs through ambitious investment.

The Scottish Greens recognise that Inverness airport currently provides necessary services across the Highlands and Islands. However, we oppose Highland and Islands Airports Ltd proposal for expansion and the centralisation of jobs to Inverness that this would invite. Connectivity on the mainland should be developed with accessible and green bus and train services.

14 Defence Sector Jobs

If elected what steps will you take to ensure that this vital contract is awarded to Scottish yards and Scottish workers?

The Scottish Greens are in favour of controlling, reducing, and eventually ending, the export of all military technology. We are committed to a just transition for people employed in arms manufacturing jobs into other industries such as renewable energy, and in our manifesto you will find detailed commitments on how we propose to revitalise Scottish manufacturing and ensure Scotland is at the forefront of a green industrial revolution.

We believe that with the right policies we re-energise Scottish manufacturing and focus on the development of industries that help create a prosperous low-carbon Scotland with peace and justice at its heart. The sector is in historic decline but there is enormous potential for growth through ambitious investment in a green industrial strategy. We will take an interventionist approach to building the skills, workforce and demand that will together create a world-leading green industrial sector in Scotland. We will establish a centre of excellence to deliver a technical skills programme for green manufacturing, providing grant funding for manufacturing firms to retrain and upskill their workforce and provide apprenticeships.

Fair Work Prospect has a proud record of engaging with the Fair Work Convention / Commission. Early in the pandemic Prospect signed a ground-breaking Fair Work Agreement on Coronavirus with the Scottish Government as members of the STUC were instrumental in delivering an economy wide Fair Work agreement between the STUC and the Scottish Government. The Fair Work agenda has been crucial to delivering the health, safety, wellbeing and incomes of hundreds of thousands of workers across Scotland. As the world of work changes as a result of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic there will never have been a greater need for workers voice and engagement.

If elected how will you strengthen the work of the Fair Work Commission and ensure that fair work underpins the change to a more digital and remote world of work?

The pandemic has forced employers to recognise that flexible, digital and remote working is possible and we will encourage employers to continue making improvements to support equal, accessible and flexible working arrangements.

The Scottish Greens are committed to taking ambitious action to make work fairer, safer and more just. We will maximise public sector investment to support fair work in practice by using public procurement to require firms to recognise trade unions, ban precarious contracts, and pay at least the living wage and union negotiated rates for jobs.

15 We will ensure enterprise and infrastructure funding is fully aligned behind the low carbon economy and green manufacturing and with strict conditions to ensure that companies support jobs in Scottish supply chains and respect workers’ rights.

The key workers who have kept the country going through the pandemic have always been the backbone of our communities and too many are still on low pay, zero-hour contracts, working in difficult conditions and now with the ever-present risk of contracting covid at work. Building a green and fair economy starts with a new deal for workers.

We join calls on the UK government to raise the minimum wage to establish a real living wage, introduce additional protections against wage theft, expand the coverage of statutory sick pay (SSP), and increase it so that it pays at least the living wage.

We support the use of powers existing with the Scottish Government to transition to a four-day working week with no loss of pay.

Support for Creative Sector

The Scottish Greens believe that the cultural sector and creative industries can be the backbone of a wellbeing economy, as we recover from the pandemic and build towards a zero carbon future. For this to become a reality we must stabilise our cultural sector and support its creative thinkers, makers, artists and practitioners.

We recognise that investment now will lead to long-term benefits for our communities, our economy and our climate. We will support freelancers through a substantial increase in culture investment and a change to procurement practices that ensures freelancers have an equal right to access. We will also extend the Government’s culture collective scheme run through Creative Scotland.

Public Services

Prospect members working in public services in Scotland have been at the forefront of keeping the country running during the pandemic, from Agricultural Inspections to Brexit transition. Our members are quite rightly concerned that the cost of the Governments response to the pandemic may fall, as it has been seen before, disproportionately on public sector workers. We welcome the recent Public Sector Pay policy but a significant portion of our members will see a real terms pay cut as a result of its implementation.

If you are elected what steps will you take to support public sector workers and ensure that those in the sector who kept the country functioning do not pay a disproportionate price?

The cost of the recovery from the pandemic must not fall on the shoulders of those who have been hit hardest by the impacts of the pandemic.

16 The Scottish Greens are committed to well funded public services and will invest an extra half a billion pounds of additional funding. We are committed to ensuring that the role teachers play in our communities and in the lives of young people is recognised and fairly paid. We will support teachers to teach by recruiting an extra 5,500 additional permanent teachers, an increase of 10%, and reducing class sizes to 20 pupils. We also need to support our health and care workers to heal from the pandemic. We will make the wellbeing of those who have worked hard to keep us safe and well through the pandemic a priority. We support an increase in salaries for nurses of 12.5%, at a total cost of £770 million. We will ensure all health and social care workers have access to dedicated mental health support and counselling, access to healthy food and hydration in the workplace, improved working conditions through a focus on wellbeing in the workplace. Staff need a rest. We will ensure health and care staff and support to work more flexible hours and we will introduce enforceable breaks or pay when breaks are not possible. We will encourage new staff into the workforce by increasing the number of funded university places for nursing students and creating a bursary for student paramedics, equivalent to the Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary.

Digital Infrastructure

If you are elected what steps will you take to improve the digital infrastructure of Scotland and what steps will you take to stop companies cutting digital jobs across Scotland?

The Scottish Greens recognise investment in a digital future for Scotland is essential to protect digital jobs and ensure fair and equal access across Scotland to digital education, work and leisure opportunities.

We need to start treating broadband as a utility that is essential for many people in Scotland to participate in modern life. This means working to make broadband accessible and affordable and prioritising the upgrading for rural areas before offering even faster services for cities.

With the correct policies, our digital future can revolutionise modern working arrangement, facilitating flexible and remote working, and support a transition to a 4 day working week with no loss of pay.

Heritage

Like the creative sector Prospect has thousands of members employed across the heritage sector in Scotland, both in the state and third sectors. As a Union we welcome the steps taken by the Scottish Government to support workers in the sector, including the use of furlough and additional funding amongst others. Scotland’s built and natural heritage will play a vital role in kick starting the post pandemic tourism industry.

If elected what steps will you take to support Scotland’s built and natural environment and to make both more accessible to the public?

17 The Scottish Green Party is committed to reducing the rate of destruction of our archaeological heritage, protecting important archaeological sites from development proposals, and encouraging contemporary, ecologically sound building design reflecting the now and as a 'heritage for the future'.

We believe that all publicly owned museums, galleries and archives in Scotland, and nationally owned collections should be free to access. We also encourage public access and ownership of our built heritage by supporting communities to develop and sustain the curation of their own community assets.

The Scottish Greens are committed ensuring the public has improved access to a better protected natural environment undergoing restoration.

We will expand protected areas so that a third of our land and seas are properly protected by 2025, introduce “highly protected areas'' across 10% of Scotland and enhance species protections. We will also continue to work to ensure that green space is protected from unsuitable development and will use the planning system to ensure that all new development results in a positive benefit for wildlife and the natural environment.

We will invest at least £895m over the next five years in restoring nature whilst investing in rural communities, creating over 6,000 green jobs. This will fund the restoration of key habitats, such as wetlands, rivers and our coastlines, more and better National and Regional Parks, a public and community native woodland planting and regeneration, support for local authorities to invest in rangering and biodiversity protection, restoration of peatlands, Scotland’s most important carbon store, putting us on target to restore all peatland by 2030.

Our plans to expand and enhance national, regional and local parks contributes to a broader program to deliver green space for all. Everyone deserves to access and enjoy nature close to where they live. We will invest in our new and existing parks so that they have an adequate ranger service and more powers to deliver its goals. We will deliver a programme of public and community land acquisition so that more of our Parks are publicly owned and managed in the public interest.

We need to urgently transform the way we consume and manage resources in Scotland to reduce our material impacts on the natural environment. We will build a circular economy to reduce raw material consumption and waste production, and deliver a rapid phase out of single- use plastics.

We also support the reforesting of Scotland and will invest in the massive expansion of public and community owned woodlands. Just 18% of Scotland is currently forested, but our vision is to increase this to 40% by 2040.

18 Scottish Conservatives- Douglass Ross

If elected what steps will you take to support the aviation sector in Scotland and reassure our members and the communities where they live and work of the retention of well-paid high-quality employment and oppose the plans to deliver air traffic control remotely?

Since the pandemic began we have pushed the SNP at every opportunity to give the sector as much support as possible to ensure that, when restrictions are eased, the aviation sector can take off again. This has included forcing the SNP to u-turn on extending the non-domestic rates freeze, which benefits aviation, for a whole year instead of the three months that they initially planned.

What we need now is a clear plan in place for the resumption of international travel to allow aviation and associated industries to be able to plan ahead and meet demand when it returns.

Aviation is a key sector in many areas across Scotland and we will always stand up for these communities as, for too long, SNP centralisation has led to a reduction in high skilled and well- paid work forcing people to move to the larger cities instead of staying local.

In the next Parliament we will work to rebuild our communities by investing in projects that will protect and create those high-skilled, well-paid jobs that are missing in too many of Scotland’s towns. This also includes ensuring the safety and sustainability of our airports in the Highlands and Islands – including guaranteeing that any changes to air traffic control are fit-for-purpose for the region. We will ensure that jobs are not lost to other parts of the country by seeking to bring Scotland’s tax system back into line with the rest of the UK by the end of the Parliament, so that no-one in Scotland will pay more tax and take home less money for doing the same job than their colleagues south of the border.

Defence sector jobs

If elected what steps will you take to ensure that this vital contract is awarded to Scottish yards and Scottish workers?

Since I was elected to the House of Commons, my Scottish Conservative colleagues and I have helped to ensure that the shipyards on the Clyde and in Rosyth win as much work as possible. Going forward, my party and I will continue to be powerful advocates for Scotland’s shipbuilders as this is a sector that shows, perhaps above others, what can be done when both of Scotland’s governments work together to protect and create jobs.

We want to ensure that the next Parliament is 100% focussed on Scotland’s recovery from the pandemic and I am determined that a strong shipbuilding sector will be a part of that.

Fair Work

If elected how will you strengthen the work of the Fair Work Commission and ensure that fair work underpins the change to a more digital and remote world of work?

If the pandemic has taught us one thing, it’s that the world of work is and can be flexible. But not everyone has been able to change their working practices throughout the pandemic. We need to rebuild in such a way that ensures that those who have lost their jobs or have been forced to close their businesses as a result of the virus have the right support to rebuild their lives and get back on track.

We have the opportunity to do so and do so fairly. That’s why we want to give everyone in Scotland a Retrain to Rebuild account, worth £500 a year, to retrain and upskill so that they are not left behind as the economy and the labour market adapts to the post pandemic world. This could be used to take one of the new rapid retraining courses we would introduce for those who don’t have time to take up a lengthy course of study. We would also create a number of sector

19 specific Job Security Councils to quickly get those that have lost their jobs back into work in key sectors.

By taking these measures, we have the opportunity to ensure that the fair work dimensions of voice, opportunity, security, fulfilment and respect are at the heart of the recovery as we rebuild Scotland from the pandemic.

Support for creative sector

Since the pandemic began the UK Government has taken urgent action to protect the creative sector across the UK and here in Scotland. In the first phase this included £97 million specifically to provide support funding for Scotland’s creatives. As the pandemic developed the UK Government began to offer the SNP government larger and larger sums of money to protect and support jobs across all sectors. What we saw was a sluggish response from the SNP that took weeks and sometimes months to get funding out to where it was needed.

I want to see our creative sector recover from this pandemic and begin to thrive once again, but the onus will be on the next Scottish Government to make sure that funding and support gets to where it is needed as quickly as possible. And what I want to see after the pandemic is a renewed passion for the arts in Scotland – if the sector is to survive and thrive then we will all have to do our bit by supporting our local artists and venues in communities across Scotland.

Public services

If you are elected what steps will you take to support public sector workers and ensure that those in the sector who kept the country functioning do not pay a disproportionate price?

We are all indebted to the public sector workers who not only cared for us throughout the pandemic, but also kept the country running. While we need to account for the spending decisions made to get us through coronavirus, our public services also need to be supported to recover with growing public spending over the next five years. We are committed to tackling Scottish Government waste, but these efficiency savings should be reinvested.

As part of this, the Scottish Conservatives have committed to increasing the NHS budget in every year in the next Parliament so that by 2026 the NHS’s budget will have gone up by at least £2 billion. It is by properly funding services like the NHS and ensuring they have all they need for the future that we can do justice to the hard work of staff throughout the pandemic.

Digital infrastructure

If you are elected what steps will you take to improve the digital infrastructure of Scotland and what steps will you take to stop companies cutting digital jobs across Scotland?

Scotland needs a digital infrastructure that is fit for the 21st century. However, the SNP’s rollout of the digital infrastructure required to support this has been marked by excessive delay. They promised that their R100 superfast broadband rollout would be finished in 2021, yet they only signed the contract to deliver it in the north of the country at the end of last year, with the completion date being delayed to 2026.

The Scottish Conservatives would connect every single home and business property in Scotland to full fibre broadband by 2027. This will allow for a future-proofed digital network capable of supporting 5G mobile coverage. We will use all levers of government to achieve this ambition, including the tax system, planning rules and skills development. We would bring forward legislation requiring every new home to be built with a full fibre connection. We will begin the rollout in the rural areas left behind by R100.

We would also set up an e-commerce taskforce to support Scottish businesses, increasing spending on R&D and work to enhance Scotland’s reputation as a world leader in satellite technology.

Heritage

If elected what steps will you take to support Scotland’s built and natural environment and to make both more accessible to the public?

Scotland’s built and natural environment assets are a key part of our tourism sector, one of the sectors that’s been worst hit by the pandemic. Thankfully the UK Government’s furlough and self- employment support schemes, along with cuts to business rates after pressure from the Scottish Conservatives, have provided a lifeline for much of the industry. But what we have seen is an SNP Government that has been too slow to react and get funding, provided by the UK Government, out the door to those who need it most.

To help music venues, heritage sites and festivals recover, we will set up a £50 million Cultural Kick Start Fund. As part of this, we will deliver a half price entry programme for heritage sites for the remainder of 2021.

We would support our communities more widely by taking a range of measures to revitalise our town centres and high streets, as well as setting up Community Investment Deals to create good and skilled jobs in all parts of Scotland. We would start with an initial investment of £550 million to kickstart local growth and leverage investment from councils, local business and the UK Government.

We would also introduce an ambitious Nature Bill in the next Parliament, to strengthen environmental protections on land, in our rivers and at sea - so that we can better safeguard protected areas and reverse declines in native species.