Scottish Parliament Election 2026
Policy Comparison & Manifesto Tracker
An archived record of every major party's manifesto commitments from the 7 May 2026 Scottish Parliament election.
🗳️ Election held: 7 May 2026 — this site is now archivedPolicy Comparison
Browse each party's commitments by policy area. Filter to focus on the issues that matter most to you.
| Policy Area | SNP | Labour | Conservatives | Lib Dems | Greens | Reform UK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Economy & Jobs
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Committed
Make Scotland the best place in Europe to start and scale a business, with a new 'High Growth Unit' for unicorn-scale companies. 150,000 apprenticeships over the parliament, including 8,000+ graduate apprenticeships.
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Committed
9,000 new apprenticeships and a new industrial strategy. Plans to replace business rates and create a Scottish Treasury.
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Committed
A 'growth test' for every government policy. Enterprise-style zones, cut red tape and lower business rates to attract investment.
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Committed
New industrial and skills strategies on day one, inviting business leaders to shape the Programme for Government. Job Transition Loans of up to £5,000 for retraining. New SME-focused arm of the Scottish National Investment Bank. Halve Scottish Government spending on private consultancy.
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Committed
Tax wealth and polluting industries to fund public services. Establish regional green skills hubs linking colleges, employers and unions.
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Committed
Slash quangos to save £7.5bn and return powers to ministers. Cut spending to grow the private sector.
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Health & NHS
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Committed
At least £10 billion in capital investment over ten years and £200 million annually to tackle waiting times. End the 8am GP rush with walk-in clinics across Scotland, open 7 days a week.
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Committed
End the 8am rush for GP appointments and bring back the 'family doctor'. Speed up rollout of an NHS app, invest in AI-enabled scanners and use all available NHS capacity to cut waiting times.
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Committed
Guarantee a GP appointment within 48 hours. £350m extra NHS funding above inflation. Bring back recently retired doctors and nurses to reduce waiting lists.
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Committed
Embed 900 new multidisciplinary staff across GP practices — the equivalent of an extra clinician per practice. National lung cancer screening programme. 10-year NHS workforce plan. Walk-in mental health services. Guarantee NHS dentist access. Halve delayed discharge from hospital before the end of the decade.
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TBC |
Committed
NHS to remain free at the point of need. Establish an independent Scottish Healthcare Reform Commission to develop a workforce plan, train more nurses and solve delayed discharge.
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Education
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Committed
Maintain the best pupil-teacher ratio in the UK and legislate for a national mobile phone ban in all classrooms. A Teacher Jobs Guarantee of minimum 3 years for newly qualified teachers.
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Committed
Up to 2,000 specialist education recovery teachers. Breakfast clubs in all primary schools, ban mobile phones in classrooms, more classroom assistants and two weeks of funded summer holiday clubs.
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Committed
Raise educational standards, increase classroom assistants and ban mobile phones. Support for teachers as a priority.
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Committed
Recruit 2,000 more pupil support assistants and roll out specialist support including speech and language therapists. Play-based learning until age 7. Legislate for smartphone-free schools. End zero-hours teacher contracts. Inflation-proof Pupil Equity Funding. Restore colleges to a strong role in local economic development.
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TBC |
Committed
Scrap Education Scotland. Move to a knowledge-based curriculum and restore exams, reversing what the party calls a decade of declining standards.
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Housing
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Committed
Record £4.9 billion investment in affordable house building over four years, targeting 110,000 affordable homes by 2032. A First Homes Fund of £100 million a year offering up to £10,000 deposit support for first-time buyers.
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Committed
125,000 new homes by 2031, including more than 50,000 affordable. A dedicated Housing Bank to direct investment. LBTT relief threshold raised to £200,000 for first-time buyers.
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Committed
80,000 affordable homes over the next five years. Abolish LBTT on primary residences entirely. Opposes rent controls.
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Committed
Target 25,000 new homes built annually. 10,000 dedicated key worker homes. Help to Renovate loan scheme for neglected properties. Young Homeless Guarantee. Replace council tax with a land value system. Consult on LBTT exemptions for brownfield sites and downsizers.
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Committed
All new homes must meet net-zero standards. Strengthen rent controls by removing exemptions for mid-market and build-to-rent properties. Four-month notice period for evictions and ban on evictions for sale or owner-occupation in the first 12 months.
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Committed
Target 75,000 affordable homes over five years.
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Environment & Climate
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Committed
End Scotland's contribution to climate change by 2045 in a just and fair way, backed by a £500 million Just Transition Fund. Restore more than 400,000 ha of peatland by 2040 and fund 18,000 ha of woodland creation annually by 2029.
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Partial
Support renewables expansion and remove what they describe as the SNP's block on new nuclear energy in Scotland.
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Partial
Back oil and gas industry alongside support for new nuclear power. Less emphasis on accelerating net zero targets.
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Committed
Net zero by 2045 with a clear roadmap. Emergency insulation programme to cut household bills. Clean Water Act to tackle sewage dumping. Expand woodlands using at least 50% native species. Double fixed penalty for littering. Remove ideological opposition to Small Modular Reactors. Oppose fracking.
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Committed
Get Scotland back on track for net zero by 2045 with a coordinated climate action delivery programme. £600m investment in onshore and offshore wind, wave and solar to lower energy bills.
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Opposed
Scrap all Scottish Government net zero targets. Fast-track planning for new energy projects including open cast coal mining. Prioritise energy security over climate targets.
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Energy
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Committed
Accelerate investment in offshore wind, solar and pumped storage, and establish a ScotWind Wealth Fund for future generations. Will not greenlight any new nuclear power stations, backing renewables as faster, cheaper and safer.
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Committed
Support renewables expansion. Remove the block on new nuclear energy to diversify Scotland's energy mix.
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Committed
Back North Sea oil and gas alongside support for new nuclear power as part of a balanced energy policy.
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Committed
Emergency insulation programme and accelerated rollout of heat pumps and district heating. Quadruple solar energy generation this parliament. Overhaul community benefit rules so local areas get more from nearby renewable projects. Open to Small Modular Reactors subject to proper scrutiny. Support carbon capture, creating up to 15,000 jobs.
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Committed
£600m investment programme in onshore and offshore wind, wave and solar. Zero-carbon energy to lower bills and cut emissions.
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Committed
Scrap net zero energy targets. Fast-track planning approvals for new energy projects including open cast coal. Back North Sea oil and gas.
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Transport & Infrastructure
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Committed
Legislate for a £2 bus fare cap across Scotland by end of parliament. Complete dualling of the A9 between Perth and Inverness by 2035, backed by almost £200 million investment.
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Committed
£350m dedicated potholes fund. Deliver the Glasgow Airport Rail Link.
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Committed
National pothole fund, trunk road upgrades and bridge restoration across Scotland.
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Committed
Ferries Bill to end the island ferry fiasco. TfL-style bus model giving communities control over routes. Nationwide tap-and-go transport with a daily spend cap. A9 dualling accelerated; A96 dualling timetable within 100 days. Dangerous Roads Programme. More late-night ScotRail services and new stations.
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Committed
All new homes must be connected to zero-carbon public transport. Reduce transport emissions as part of the climate action delivery programme.
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Committed
Fix potholes as an immediate priority. Abolish ULEZ-style schemes. End what the party calls 'the war on the motor car'.
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Cost of Living
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Committed
Establish legal price ceilings on a basket of 20–50 essential food items at large supermarkets. Expand childcare to all children from 9 months to end of primary school, 52 weeks a year.
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Committed
Making life more affordable is the first manifesto priority. Commitments include tax relief for first-time buyers and breakfast clubs to reduce household costs.
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Committed
Cut taxes so people keep more of their own money. Raise the income tax threshold and reduce rates to ease cost-of-living pressure.
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Committed
Emergency insulation programme to cut energy bills. Job Transition Loans up to £5,000 for retraining. UK-EU customs union described as the single biggest lever for reducing costs. 25,000 new homes a year to ease housing costs. Fairer childcare for working families.
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Committed
Lower energy bills through £600m renewable investment. Stronger tenant protections to limit housing costs.
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Committed
Cut Scottish income tax below rest-of-UK rates. Save households money by cutting what the party calls wasteful government spending.
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Taxation
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Committed
No increase to income tax band numbers or rates over the parliament, aiming to simplify the system. From 2028, a mansion tax adding two new bands for properties over £1 million and £2 million, with funds going to local services.
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Committed
Raise LBTT relief threshold to £200,000 for first-time buyers. Replace business rates with a fairer system.
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Committed
Raise the income tax threshold to £13,892 by 2031 (saving ~£250/year). Income tax rate of 19% up to the higher rate. Higher rate threshold raised to £50,270 to match the rest of the UK. Abolish LBTT on primary residences entirely.
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Committed
Lift tax thresholds with inflation where funds allow and gradually close the income tax differential with England. Replace council tax with a land value system. Reform business rates with a land value element. Air Departure Tax devolution. Private jet tax. Point of entry levy powers for councils.
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Committed
Tax wealth and polluting industries to pay for public services. Ask the richest in society to pay more.
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Committed
Cut Scottish income tax below rest-of-UK rates, funded by closing quangos and cutting £7.5bn in spending.
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Social Care
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Committed
Legislate for a legal right to breaks for unpaid carers and commission annual health checks for them. A new £20 million Complex Care Investment to free up around 400 hospital beds.
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TBC | TBC |
Committed
National bargaining on care worker pay and a new career ladder. Increase Carer Support Payment by £400 a year. Young Carers' Leads in every school and college. Halve delayed discharge from hospital before the end of the decade. Key worker housing to help care staff take up posts.
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Committed
Free social care at the point of need — ending non-residential care charges as a first step. Gradually end outsourcing to private companies by bringing care homes into public or community ownership. Raise social care worker wages as a priority and recognise the third sector as an equal partner in delivery.
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Partial
Tackle the 'bloated welfare budget' with rigorous face-to-face assessments for claimants. Focus on reducing dependency rather than expanding entitlements.
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Justice & Public Safety
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Committed
Record £1.7 billion for police, maintaining the highest officer numbers per head in the UK. Introduce a Misogyny Bill to outlaw harassment and abuse based on misogyny, and ban deepfake intimate images.
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Committed
Named local police officers for communities. Stronger action on antisocial behaviour.
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Committed
Repeal the Hate Crime and Public Order Act. Tougher sentencing and more prison capacity.
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Committed
Strengthen the Retail Crime Taskforce. Invest in robust community sentences as credible alternatives to prison. Reduce reoffending through education and welfare checks within 48 hours of release. Independent director of prosecutions. Restorative justice. Inject local democracy back into Police Scotland.
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Committed
Prevention and community justice over incarceration — reduce the prison population by investing in youth work, trauma-informed practice and community sentences. Recognise misogyny in Scots law and fund violence prevention services. Reverse cuts to legal aid and reinvest in housing, mental health and addiction services to address the root causes of crime.
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Committed
Back the police. Repeal the Hate Crime and Public Order Act. Tougher approach to crime and sentencing.
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Government Reform
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Committed
Bring forward a Public Service Renewal Bill in the first year to substantially reduce the number of public bodies.
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Committed
Cut one-third of quangos and return powers to ministers. Create a new Scottish Treasury to improve economic management.
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Committed
Cut quangos by at least a quarter. Introduce a Taxpayer Savings Act to ensure public money is spent efficiently.
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Committed
Accountability Act to enshrine the Ministerial Code in law and introduce MSP recall. End SNP centralisation and shift power to local government. Change Holyrood voting system to STV. Back a written federal UK constitution. Halve Scottish Government consultancy spend. Reboot the civil service.
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TBC |
Committed
Shut down quangos entirely, saving £7.5bn. Reduce the number of MSPs from 73 to 57 by aligning Holyrood constituencies with Westminster boundaries.
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Scottish Independence
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Committed
An SNP majority is treated as a mandate — based on the 2011 precedent — for powers to be transferred to enable an independence referendum. Independence remains the central long-term goal.
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Opposed
Opposes independence and a second referendum. Argues Scotland's challenges are best solved within the UK.
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Opposed
Strongly opposes independence and any further referendums. Positions the election as a choice between SNP division and Conservative stability.
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Opposed
Firmly opposes independence and a second referendum. Backs a federal UK with a written constitution instead, with power devolved as close as possible to communities.
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Committed
Supports Scottish independence as part of building a greener, fairer country. Would use Holyrood to advance the case for independence.
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Opposed
Strongly unionist. Opposes independence and any second referendum.
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Independent Fiscal Analysis
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has published initial responses to each party's manifesto, assessing fiscal credibility, tax design and spending plans.
Additional spending of £1.4 billion a year by 2031–32 is pledged without a credible funding plan — assumed efficiencies would need to stack on top of already significant savings built into existing spending plans, making further tax rises or cuts the more likely outcome. The standout policies — means-tested childcare expansion and statutory food price ceilings — are either expensive, risky, or both. And despite the SNP’s argument that independence would ease fiscal pressures, independence would end the fiscal transfers from London that currently fund Scotland’s higher spending per head, adding to challenges rather than relieving them.
More information
- Fiscal credibility The £1.4 billion cost is assumed to be covered by SEND funding from Westminster (£360m/year) and £1 billion from efficiency savings and higher growth. But IFS judges that most of the SEND funding will likely need to go to the NHS, and the efficiency savings would come on top of already significant cuts built into the Spending Review. In a context of slowing UK funding and over-optimistic income tax forecasts, further tax rises or deeper spending cuts are the more probable outcome.
- Taxation The manifesto has very few concrete tax policies. The income tax commitment not to add bands or raise rates leaves room to freeze thresholds — dragging more people into higher bands. The ‘mansion tax’ adding two council tax bands for properties over £1 million is no substitute for the real reform of a system based on 35-year-old valuations. IFS notes disappointment that the SNP — after 20 years in government — still requires ‘consensus’ before reforming council tax. LBTT, arguably the tax most in need of reform, is not mentioned at all.
- Childcare & cost of living A means-tested childcare expansion from 9 months to end of primary school would cost £540 million a year — but means-testing weakens work incentives, and for families on Universal Credit the new policy would add little on top of existing support. The food price ceiling pledge is either radical and risky — potentially causing shortages, product reformulations, or supply withdrawal — or a paper tiger if ceilings are set above market prices. The £2 bus fare cap would cost £210 million a year by 2031–32.
- Public services The NHS capital commitment of £10 billion over ten years is almost certainly lower in real terms than existing Spending Review plans. Eliminating waits over 26 weeks for elective care by end of parliament would be a stretching target given Scotland is still treating fewer elective patients than pre-pandemic. On schools, the pledge to ‘at least maintain’ pupil-teacher ratios is ambiguous — with falling pupil numbers, it could allow teacher reductions while technically meeting the commitment, putting the Teacher Jobs Guarantee in direct tension.
- Independence & public finances The SNP argues independence would ease fiscal pressures — IFS disagrees. Scotland currently has public spending per person 14% above the UK average, largely funded by fiscal transfers from London and the South East. Scotland’s notional fiscal deficit is 11.6% of GDP, versus 5.1% for the UK. Independence would end those transfers, requiring further spending cuts and/or tax rises to avoid unsustainable borrowing. The SNP is likely right that Brexit harmed the economy, but rejoining the EU as an independent nation would not automatically reverse this — Scotland trades more with the rest of the UK than with the EU.
A notably restrained manifesto — no big tax cuts or expansions of entitlements, with most spending pledged from within existing budgets. The lack of big unfunded commitments is fiscally welcome given Scotland’s challenging position. But delivering the targeted improvements to public services with constrained funding would still require cuts elsewhere, tax rises, or productivity gains — and whether that proves possible is less clear.
More information
- Fiscal approach Compared with every other party, this is a pared-back offering: no large new entitlements, no unfunded tax cuts. Most spending pledges represent small changes to how money is already planned to be spent. This means fewer obvious winners but also fewer losers from measures needed to pay for giveaways — and more of Scotland’s constrained funding available for existing services.
- Taxation No further income tax rises are committed to, though existing threshold freezes through 2028–29 remain in place. An aspiration to cut the highest marginal income tax rates is noted, but it is explicitly contingent on economic and fiscal conditions — making it difficult to deliver. On council tax, Labour’s position amounts to the same deferral as the SNP: no firm promise, and a ‘consensus’ requirement that risks reform never happening.
- Families & childcare The main policy — a Scottish top-up to tax-free childcare, raising the government subsidy from 25p to 37.5p per £1 — helps a wider age range than rival parties’ funded hours proposals, but remains a partial subsidy that blunts cost-of-living benefits. Beyond this, there is little new cash support for families with children, well short of what would be needed to meet Scotland’s statutory child poverty targets.
- Public services Health and social care is committed to at least £25 billion by 2030–31, implying real-terms growth of just 1.4% a year — meaning spending would barely increase at all in the latter years of the parliament. Plans for 2,000 recovery teachers and 1,500 classroom assistants are intended to be funded from within existing budgets, but that money is likely needed for the NHS. Delivering large improvements to services within these constraints would be difficult.
Tax cuts and spending increases totalling almost £6 billion a year by 2031–32 are costed on paper — but whether the package would survive contact with reality is far from clear. The nearly £4 billion a year expected from back-office and administrative savings is not credible at that scale without cuts to front-line services. Scotland can have lower taxes and higher spending on some services, but giveaways of this scale cannot credibly be funded largely through back-office savings.
More information
- Fiscal credibility The costs of new measures are set out clearly — a welcome level of transparency — but the funding side does not hold up to scrutiny. Almost £4 billion a year is expected from back-office and administration savings by 2031–32, equivalent to over 7% of projected Scottish public services spending. This comes on top of savings already assumed in the existing Spending Review. History is replete with missed targets for savings of this kind, necessitating tax rises or cuts to front-line services instead.
- Income tax & business rates Proposed income tax cuts would benefit all Scottish taxpayers, with gains rising sharply with income — around £200/year at £15,000 income, rising to £1,660/year for anyone above the higher-rate threshold. Total cost: almost £3 billion a year by 2031–32. The move to a single marginal rate below the higher-rate threshold would be a welcome simplification. Business rates cuts (£0.7bn/year) also include sensible structural reforms, though permanently lower rates for specific sectors is less clearly justified.
- Disability benefits cuts The plan to tighten eligibility for adult disability payments (ADP) for those with mental health conditions is concrete, not vague — a distinction from other parties. But the £1.8 billion a year savings estimated by 2030–31 (34% of forecast ADP spending) are highly uncertain. The costings assume few claimants would seek medical diagnoses to qualify; the OBR assumed behavioural responses would halve equivalent UK-level savings. IFS judges that savings would likely be lower than assumed.
- Childcare & child payment Childcare expansion to cover working families from 9 months onwards mirrors English reforms, but the majority of beneficiaries would be families who would have worked and paid for childcare anyway — making this primarily a cost-of-living subsidy rather than a measure that changes work incentives or child outcomes. Restricting the Scottish child payment to two children would strengthen work incentives but increase child poverty in larger families, which already have substantially higher poverty rates.
- Public services An extra £350 million for the NHS in 2028–29, rising to an assumed £1 billion by 2031–32, should help improve services — though the challenge of meeting all the manifesto’s health objectives should not be underestimated. Schools proposals focus on knowledge-based curriculum reform, increased testing and discipline — similar to Reform UK’s approach. Significant new spending on adult education and apprenticeships (£260 million a year by 2031–32) is among the more distinctive positive commitments.
IFS has not yet published a response to the Scottish Liberal Democrats manifesto.
A large manifesto proposing huge changes, but the tax plans seem unlikely to raise enough revenue to fund all the additional spending proposed — meaning even larger tax rises or cuts to lower-priority spending would be needed. Scotland’s position as the highest-taxed part of the UK would be cemented, and whether plans could be delivered over a parliament is far from clear.
More information
- Property taxation Reform of council tax is genuinely welcome — replacing regressive 1991 valuations with a proportional property tax would raise around £1.3–1.5bn a year and is good tax design. In contrast, further increases to LBTT are economically damaging: it discourages beneficial transactions, makes it harder to move for work or family, and is a tax that should be reduced, not made bigger.
- Fiscal credibility It is welcome that the Greens pair large spending commitments with a recognition that higher revenues are needed. However, the revenue proposals appear to fall short of what the spending plans would cost, and big tax rises to fund new universal entitlements would make further increases — likely needed to maintain existing services — even harder to deliver.
- Families & childcare Large increases proposed to the Scottish child payment (rising to £55/week per child by 2030) would reduce child poverty but significantly weaken work incentives — particularly given the cliff-edge structure where a £1 rise in earnings can remove the entire payment. Childcare expansion plans are ambitious, though costings assume full take-up and do not fully account for cost inflation.
- Public services Plans include free bus travel for all, free dental care, free non-residential social care, and a major boost to GP numbers (from 0.65 to 1 per 1,000 people — a very large increase). External costings are based on data several years old — true costs are likely higher. Whether this scale of service expansion could be delivered within a single parliament is unclear.
- Tax complexity The manifesto proposes a wide range of new taxes, including a stadium levy and tourism point-of-entry levy. While some reforms address genuine distortions, the net effect would be a significant increase in the complexity of the Scottish tax system, with consequences for businesses and the wider economy.
Plans for income tax cuts costing up to £4 billion a year are the headline commitment, but the claimed self-funding mechanism is a mirage created by misunderstanding the devolution settlement and incorrectly comparing cumulative and annual figures. The combination of big tax cuts and implied benefit increases without any identified source of funding is not fiscally credible, and the analysis underpinning the flagship policy is, in IFS’s words, ‘unserious at best.’
More information
- Income tax cuts Initial cuts would set each Scottish income tax rate 1 percentage point below the rest of the UK, costing around £2.3 billion a year by 2030, rising to £4 billion if the full ambition (3 points below rUK) is achieved. The gains are heavily skewed to high earners: someone on the National Living Wage (£24,785) would save at most £80/year; someone on £50,000 saves £1,900; someone on £125,000 saves £6,400.
- The self-funding claim The manifesto claims the tax cuts would pay for themselves via economic growth — IFS concludes this is wrong in two distinct ways. First, behavioural responses are already incorporated in the cost estimates. Second, the £2 billion cost is annual, not a one-off — so even an £8 billion cumulative gain over 10 years would not cover it. Compounding the error: because only around a third of taxes are devolved, a 1% earnings boost would generate only ~£300 million a year for the Scottish budget — not the figures cited. IFS calls the analysis ‘not good enough.’
- Marginal tax rates Reform UK rightly highlights that some people face very high effective marginal tax rates, including cliff-edges where earning £1 more can remove thousands in benefits. The concrete proposal to taper carers’ benefits more smoothly is feasible, albeit at a cost. However, addressing the broader pledge that no-one should face a marginal rate above 50% — especially for those on Universal Credit — would require top-ups to benefit payments for many low- and middle-income families, pushing up Scottish benefit spending rather than reducing it.
- Property tax reform Reform UK is right that LBTT and business rates have serious flaws and should be reformed. But the proposed annual property tax replacement has significant shortcomings: pre-announcing LBTT reductions would freeze the property market as buyers delay purchases, and the plan to end regular property revaluations misunderstands how business rates work — revaluations are a feature, not a bug, of a well-functioning property tax.
- Public services Despite listing ‘fixing our NHS’ as its first priority, the manifesto provides no spending detail or policy initiatives that would deliver meaningful improvements — a post-election commission is proposed instead. On schools, curriculum reform and greater testing could have benefits. On local government, a review of statutory duties is worthwhile, but the fundamental problem — growing social care costs and falling funding — cannot be resolved within the constraints of Reform UK’s tax cut plans.
Manifesto Release Tracker
Has your party published their manifesto yet? We track every release here.
| Party | Leader | Status | Release Date | Manifesto |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Scottish National Party
SNP
|
John Swinney | Released | 16 April 2026 | View manifesto → |
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Scottish Labour
Labour
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Anas Sarwar | Released | 13 April 2026 | View manifesto → |
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Scottish Conservative Party
Conservatives
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Russell Findlay | Released | 7 April 2026 | View manifesto → |
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Scottish Liberal Democrats
Lib Dems
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Alex Cole-Hamilton | Released | 17 April 2026 | View manifesto → |
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Scottish Greens
Greens
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Gillian Mackay & Patrick Harvie | Released | 14 April 2026 | View manifesto → |
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Reform UK Scotland
Reform UK
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Malcolm Offord | Released | 19 March 2026 | View manifesto → |