--- election_year: 2019 party_id: scottish-labour party_name: Scottish Labour Party party_leader: Richard Leonard political_spectrum: centre-left victory: false government_outcome: opposition sections: - economy - taxation - health - education - housing - immigration - defence - foreign-policy - environment - transport - law-and-order - welfare - democracy-and-constitution - agriculture - energy - science-and-technology - local-government --- # Scottish Labour Party Manifesto 2019 ## Real Change: For The Many Not The Few ### Scottish Labour Manifesto 2019 ## Contents * FOREWORD BY RICHARD LEONARD6 * FOREWORD BY JEREMY CORBYN8 * A GREEN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION11 * ECONOMY AND ENERGY12 * TRANSPORT21 * ENVIRONMENT25 * FOOD28 * ANIMAL WELFARE — 29 * REBUILD OUR PUBLIC SERVICES30 * FUNDING — 31 * NHS AND SOCIAL CARE33 * EDUCATION AND SKILLS38 * POLICE AND SECURITY43 * JUSTICE46 * COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT49 * FIRE AND RESCUE — 52 * DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT — 53 * TACKLE POVERTY AND INEQUALITY56 * WORK — 57 * WOMEN AND EQUALITIES — 64 * MIGRATION69 * SOCIAL SECURITY — 71 * HOUSING — 76 * THE FINAL SAY ON BREXIT80 * THE FINAL SAY ON BREXIT81 * A NEW INTERNATIONALISM85 * A NEW INTERNATIONALISM — 86 * EFFECTIVE DIPLOMACY — 88 * DEFENCE AND SECURITY — 91 * INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE94 * DEMOCRACY AND ACCOUNTABILITY97 * CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM IN SCOTLAND — 98 * STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY — 100 ## Foreword As I travel around Scotland, I meet people every day doing everything they can for their families and their communities in the face of enormous challenges. Poverty and necessity have driven thousands more to food banks. Living standards have been squeezed and our essential public services have been undermined. The austerity imposed by the Tories and the Liberal Democrats was never an economic necessity, it was a political choice. It has resulted in a shocking rise in inequality, with the super-rich getting even richer making almost everyone else poorer. There has been a fundamental redistribution of wealth and power in the wrong direction. In this election, we have a once in a generation opportunity to change all this. On December 12, we have the chance not just to talk about the big challenges facing Scotland as the SNP do, but to rise to them and make transformational change. A UK Labour government would provide Scotland with around £100 billion of additional resources over two parliamentary terms. This huge investment will transform Scotland’s people, communities, public services and industries. As we explain in this manifesto, that creates the opportunity to invest in and reform our public services and sustainably grow our economy. Scottish Labour would use these resources to renew NHS Scotland with a focus on improving access to GP services and rebuilding mental health services. A massive expansion of social care will support people in the community rather than leave them in hospital beds. 120,000 new council and social houses together with a £6 billion investment in existing dwellings, will provide warm homes for everyone and end homelessness once and for all. These projects will support tens of thousands of jobs across Scotland. And these will be quality jobs, underpinned by a £10 living wage irrespective of age and a range of new employment rights from day one -rebalancing the economy and the workplace. Labour’s investment will enable a new start for the next generation. We will radically reduce child poverty, strengthen our struggling education system, support all students with a Minimum Income Guarantee, end age discrimination on wages and introduce free bus travel for the under-25s. One test of a civilised society is how we treat our pensioners. Labour’s investment in public services will ensure everyone is treated with dignity and able to live long and fulfilling lives. Labour’s Green Industrial Revolution is a huge investment, which will put a new urgency into our action on the climate emergency. Cutting emissions with measures like free broadband, while investing in new jobs to ensure no one or no community is left behind. These are just some of the life-changing commitments you will find in this manifesto. Policies that are unashamedly focused on improving the lives of the many in Scotland. I won’t be distracted by the competing nationalisms of the Tories and the SNP. Whether you voted to leave or remain in the European Union, we are the only Party guaranteeing to put the choice back to the people. The only party committed to devolving real power from Westminster to Holyrood and then onto communities and workplaces. Unlike the Tories and the SNP, we want Scotland to stay in the UK, and we want the UK to stay in the European Union. The real division in these islands is between those people who own the wealth and those people who through their hard work and endeavour create the wealth. This is the most important General Election in a generation and Scotland has the power to decide if Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn is Prime Minister. Only with a Labour government can we repair the damage done to our country and our people. This is our chance to secure real change because when Labour wins, Scotland wins. **Richard Leonard, Leader of the Scottish Labour Party** ## Foreword from Jeremy Corbyn **This election will shape our country for a generation. It is your opportunity to transform our country, so that it works not just for a few, but for all of us. It is a chance to deliver the real change Scotland and the UK needs.** This election is about more than Brexit. It’s also about the climate, investment, the NHS, living standards, education, poverty and fair taxes. Above all it’s a chance for real change. It’s time to take on the vested interests holding people back. The last decade has seen a wealth grab by a privileged few, supported by the Conservatives, at the expense of the majority. The big polluters, financial speculators and corporate tax-dodgers have had a free ride for too long. Labour will build a fairer UK that cares for all, where wealth and power are shared. I am not prepared to continue to see more families without a proper home and more people queuing at food banks or sleeping rough on the streets. I am not prepared to put up with communities blighted by lack of investment, endless cuts to vital services and millions struggling to make ends meet, while tax cuts are handed to the richest. We can do better than this. How can it be right that in the fifth richest country in the world, people’s living standards are going backwards and life expectancy is stalling? The Conservatives and SNP are failing. They have failed on the economy, on the climate crisis, on investment for the future, on public services. In Scotland, the SNP have failed to protect people from Tory austerity and passed on cuts rather than use their powers to challenge them. And with the Tories’ reckless handling of Brexit, Boris Johnson poses the biggest threat to the UK. A UK Labour government will unlock the potential of all those held back for too long. We will be on your side. Labour will rewrite the rules of the economy, so that it works for everyone. We will rebuild our public services, by taxing those at the top to properly fund the services we all rely on. We will launch the largest-scale investment programme in modern times to fund the jobs and industries of the future, which will include additional funding of £100bn for Scotland over two terms. This is a fully costed programme to upgrade our economy and will transform Scotland. We will kick-start a Green Industrial Revolution to tackle the climate emergency by shifting to renewable energy, investing in rail and electric cars, and making housing energy-efficient, to reduce fuel poverty and > THE FUTURE IS OURS TO MAKE. IT’S TIME FOR REAL CHANGE – FOR THE MANY, NOT THE FEW. TOGETHER, WE CAN DELIVER IT. excess winter deaths and creating high skilled jobs at the same time. We will bring rail, mail and energy into public ownership to end the great privatisation rip-off and save you money on your fares and bills. We will deliver full-fibre broadband free to everybody in every home in our country by creating a new public service, boosting the economy, connecting communities and putting money back in your pocket. We will end food bank Britain, and lift children and pensioners out of poverty. We will bring in a Real Living Wage of at least £10 per hour for all workers, giving 700 thousand Scottish workers a pay rise – with equal rights at work from day one on the job. We will end insecurity and exploitation by ending zero-hours contracts and strengthening trade union rights. Labour will invest in our people, communities and public services and provide Scotland with a massive injection of funds to help Scotland’s under pressure public services. This includes giving Scotland the funding for the NHS that it needs. We will end the social care crisis. In Scotland we would provide social care with a 25% increase in funding, amounting to £600m a year. This would give those receiving care and those providing care the dignity they deserve. A society that works for all must give opportunity to all regardless of gender, race, disability or sexuality. Labour will protect our security at home and abroad. After years of failed foreign interventions and wars, we will instead have a foreign policy based on peace, justice and human rights. And we will get Brexit sorted in six months by giving people the final say – with a choice between a sensible leave deal or remain. We will implement whatever the British people decide. The choice could not be clearer at this election. Labour will put wealth and power in the hands of the many. Boris Johnson’s Conservatives will look after the privileged few. And only Labour can rid this country of the Conservatives. This manifesto offers the chance of real change for every generation and every community. When Labour wins, the nurse wins, the pensioner wins, the student wins, the office worker wins, the engineer wins. When Labour Wins, Scotland Wins. We can and we must do better as a country. Our manifesto offers hope, security and a fairer society. The future is ours to make. It’s time for real change – for the many, not the few. Together, we can deliver it. **Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party** ## A Green Industrial Revolution * ECONOMY AND ENERGY * TRANSPORT * ENVIRONMENT * FOOD * ANIMAL WELFARE ## Economy and Energy **This election is about the crisis of declining living standards and the climate and environmental emergency. Whether we are ready or not, we stand on the brink of unstoppable change. We must confront this change while dealing with the growing inequalities and insecurities facing people across the UK. Labour led the UK Parliament in declaring a climate and environmental emergency. Scottish Labour has led the Scottish Parliament to adopt bolder targets and greater urgency in its implementation plans.** The next Labour government will lead the world in fighting climate change, with a plan to drive up living standards by transforming our economy into one low in carbon, rich in good jobs, radically fairer and more democratic. The climate crisis ties us all into a common fate. This election is our last hope to protect future generations from an uninhabitable planet. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said we need to cut global emissions in half by 2030 to have a chance of keeping global heating within safe limits – that means acting now, and acting decisively. The Tories wasted a decade serving the interests of big polluters. Labour will use this crucial next decade to act. The Tories slashed support for renewable energy while pushing through dangerous fracking. Now the UK is decades off course on vital emissions targets. That’s why Labour will kickstart a Green Industrial Revolution that will create one million jobs across the UK to transform our industry, energy, transport, agriculture and buildings while restoring nature. Our Green New Deal aims to achieve the substantial majority of our emissions reductions by 2030 in a way that is evidence-based and that delivers an economy that serves the interests of the many, not the few. Just as the original Industrial Revolution brought industry, jobs and pride to our towns, Labour’s world-leading Green Industrial Revolution will rebuild them, with more rewarding well-paid, unionised jobs, lower energy bills that will reduce fuel poverty, and support whole new industries to revive parts of our country that have been neglected for too long. For some, industrial transition has become a byword for devastation, because successive Tory governments, and now the SNP government, have been content to sit back and leave the fate of whole industries and communities at the mercy of market forces. The SNP has failed Scotland’s low carbon and renewable energy sector in allowing companies such as BiFab to lose out on innovative work in offshore wind. The SNP’s Energy Strategy has not delivered on its promises to create thousands of jobs in the LCRE industry. Our energy sector has the opportunity to save this planet. Scottish hydro, Scottish wind, and Scottish wave power are essential to achieving the transition to the sustainable fuel sources that we need. 60% of the UK’s onshore wind capacity is in Scotland. Labour has developed ambitious plans for expanding onshore wind. At least 60% of that new capacity will be here and could mean around twenty thousand new jobs in Scotland. A Labour government would harness a Green Industrial Revolution to ensure Scotland and its workers do not miss out on opportunities, like those in Fife, ever again. We will work in partnership with the workforce and their trade unions in every sector of our economy, so that they lead the transition in their industries, creating new, good quality jobs and making sure that their extensive skills are passed on to future generations of workers. Scottish Labour would establish a properly resourced statutory Just Transition Commission, independent of changing governments and ministerial whim. The shift to net zero must reflect the experience and expertise of workers. The focus on economic growth, as measured by GDP, needs to change. Growth may be fuelled by rising employment, higher workforce participation, and longer work hours. However, this fails to consider the costs of the work involved and the health impact on workers. The process of generating GDP growth often has an environmental impact, including more pollution and waste. We will show the world how prioritising sustainability will not only deliver immediate improvements to everyone’s lives but also offer humanity a pathway to a more equitable and enlightened economy: one that protects our environment, reins in corporate power, revitalises democracy, unites our communities, builds international solidarity and promises a better quality of life for all. The scale of the challenge requires nothing less. Tackling the destruction of our planet is a question of justice – for the communities at home and abroad who are most affected by it and for our children who will bear the consequences if we don’t. Social justice will define Labour’s approach. We will make sure that the costs of the green transition fall fairly and are mostly borne by the wealthy and those most responsible for the problem. 2019 saw the blossoming of a global movement calling on politicians to wake up and act on climate change. Labour welcomed that movement and, as a government in waiting, we have turned its demands into detailed, credible plans for real change that will provide and secure opportunities for Scotland’s industries and its workers ## Investment Delivering the far-reaching change needed to tackle the climate and environmental emergency will require a full mobilisation of national resources, both public and private. Labour will create a Sustainable Investment Board to bring together the Chancellor, Business Secretary and Bank of England Governor to oversee, coordinate and bring forward this investment – involving trade unions and business. We will ask the Office for Budget Responsibility to incorporate climate and environmental impacts into its forecasts so that the cost of not acting will be factored in to every fiscal decision. We will press the Scottish Government to make similar changes to the reporting requirements of the Scottish Fiscal Commission. The cost of not acting is far greater than the cost of acting. Labour will launch a UK wide National Transformation Fund of £400 billion and rewrite the Treasury’s investment rules to guarantee every penny spent is compatible with our climate and environmental targets – and that the costs of not acting are fully accounted for too. Of this, £250 billion will directly fund the transition through a Green Transformation Fund dedicated to renewable and low carbon energy, transport, biodiversity and environmental restoration. The financial benefits of this for Scotland will enable the Scottish Parliament to adopt more radical climate change targets and action plans, including our transformative plans for Scotland’s housing. Labour will create a UK National Investment Bank, backed up by a network of Regional Development Banks, to provide £250 billion of lending for enterprise, infrastructure and innovation over ten years. This will provide the Scottish National Investment Bank with around £20 billion of lending power – ten times the amount currently capitalising the SNP’s Scottish National Investment Bank. The Scottish National Investment Bank being developed through legislation in the Scottish Parliament does not go far enough. Not only would Labour’s higher levels of capitalisation allow for greater socio-economic impact, we would guarantee trade union representation at every level of the Bank’s infrastructure. Our plan for the bank will boost Scotland’s economy through: 1. Introducing a **Worker’s Ownership Fund** which will not only enhance support for cooperative, employee-owned businesses and SMEs but also increase the numbers of these enterprises across Scotland. 2. **Harnessing the power of research** by increasing** and development** investment into the benefits of artificial intelligence and automation. In doing so we will also ensure investment in skills and training to protect and develop the jobs of workers in those industries affected by automation. 3. Creating a to **Regeneration Fund** breathe life back into Scotland’s struggling high streets which will boost local economies and promote inclusive growth across Scotland. The bank will be mandated to lend in line with the mission to decarbonise our economy while increasing productivity and creating good jobs across the country. Smaller loans will be available across the UK through our new Post Bank based in Post Office branches, enabling thousands of bottom-up transformational changes by start-ups, small businesses, local co-operatives and community projects in towns and villages up and down the country. We will make sure the UK’s financial sector is helping to tackle the emergency rather than fuelling it. We will do this by improving the fitness of our financial authorities to mobilise green investment and giving them powers to manage the risk to financial stability posed by short-sighted investment in polluting assets. Just 100 companies are responsible for the majority of carbon emissions. We won’t be afraid to tackle this wanton corporate destruction by taking on the powerful interests that are causing climate change. We will change the criteria a company must meet to be listed on the London Stock Exchange so that any company that fails to contribute to tackling the climate and environmental emergency is delisted. **Levelling Up Across the Country** Many parts of Scotland would need this level of investment even without a climate and environmental emergency. Years of under-investment and neglect have left too many communities feeling powerless and too many areas left behind with low quality jobs, weak productivity and slow economic growth. The climate and environmental emergency is a chance to unite the country to face this common challenge by mobilising all our national resources; financial and human. But we will only succeed by ensuring that everyone shares in the benefits. Labour will make sure that investment is spread evenly across the whole country and give powers and funding to every region and nation of the UK including Scotland. We will bring about a radical decentralisation of power in the UK so that local people and communities are given far greater control over their own lives and prospects. In Scotland, that means extending devolution beyond Holyrood to all of our communities. Local Government has its part to play in securing a prosperous economic future for the people of Scotland. ## Energy Energy use in buildings accounts for 51.2% of Scotland’s total emissions, making it the single most polluting sector. We will develop the recommendations of our 30 by 2030 report to put the UK on track for a net zero carbon energy system within the 2030s – and go faster if credible pathways can be found. We will deliver nearly 90% of electricity and 50% of heat from renewable and low carbon sources by 2030 in the UK – and Scotland has the potential to lead the way. We will build across the UK: • 7000 new offshore wind turbines • 2000 new onshore wind turbines • Enough solar panels to cover 22,000 football pitches • New nuclear needed for energy security. We will trial and expand tidal energy and invest to reduce the costs of renewable and low carbon hydrogen production. As part of implementing 30 by 2030, Scottish Labour would invest £6 billion from the UK’s National Transformation Fund to upgrade almost all of Scotland’s 2.6 million homes to the highest energy efficiency standards. This would reduce the average household energy bill by £417 per household per year by 2030, dramatically reduce fuel poverty and create 35,000 jobs. We will pursue a zero carbon homes standard for all new homes in Scotland. As part of heat decarbonisation, we will roll out technologies like heat pumps, solar hot water and hydrogen, and invest in district heat networks using waste heat. To balance the grid, we will expand power storage, and invest in grid enhancements and interconnectors. We will expand distributed and community energy, and immediately and permanently ban fracking. Wherever necessary we will support energy workers through transition and guarantee them retraining and a new, unionised job on equivalent terms and conditions. We will introduce a windfall tax on oil companies, so that the companies that knowingly damaged our climate will help cover the costs. In Scotland, this fund will be used to accelerate the new green industries that are needed by workers as much as the environment. We will not allow the North Sea workers to be abandoned in a move to a greener economy. This fund will safeguard a future for their skills and communities. ## Ownership We will not achieve the promise of a fair and sustainable economy if we repeat the mistakes of the carbon era, when the capture of a natural resource for private profit created a vastly unequal and polluting economy dominated by powerful vested interests. It’s not just carbon. From the depletion of fish stocks to the burning of the Amazon, profit has proved a poor regulator for use of our natural resources. Whether it is barriers to renewable energy connecting to the grid or the billions of pounds of bill-payers’ money being siphoned off in dividends to wealthy shareholders, Tory privatisation of our utilities has been a disaster for both our planet and our wallets. We will put people and planet before profit by bringing our UK energy systems into democratic public ownership. In public hands, energy will be treated as rights rather than commodities, with any surplus reinvested or used to reduce bills. Public ownership will secure democratic control over nationally strategic infrastructure and provide collective stewardship for key natural resources. In the case of energy, it will also help deliver Labour’s ambitious emissions targets. Whereas private network companies have failed to upgrade the grid at the speed and scale needed, publicly owned networks will accelerate and coordinate investment to connect renewable and low carbon energy while working with energy unions to support energy workers through the transition. Under Labour’s plans: • A new UK National Energy Agency will own and maintain the national grid infrastructure and oversee the delivery of our decarbonisation targets. • 14 new regional and devolved nation Energy Agencies will replace the existing district network operators and hold statutory responsibility for decarbonising electricity and heat and reducing fuel poverty. • The supply arms of the Big Six energy companies will be brought into public ownership where they will continue to supply households with energy while helping them reduce their energy demand. This will be more effective than the stalled SNP National Energy Company plan. The Tories allowed the proceeds of North Sea oil to be squandered on tax cuts for the richest and captured in profits for the few, instead of investing them in our future. We now stand at an even greater crossroads in the development of our national economy. Under Labour, our green future will be owned by all of us. Whenever public money is invested in an energy generation project, the public sector will take a stake and return profits to the public. ## Industry and Innovation Averting climate catastrophe offers huge economic opportunities. But the UK will only benefit from a Green Industrial Revolution with the right policies. Over the past three decades, the UK has reduced our emissions at the expense of domestic industry by offshoring production. This is an accounting trick, not a solution. It does not protect the climate, it is unfair to other countries and damages jobs and communities at home. Labour will take full responsibility for our carbon footprint instead of passing the buck. We will instruct the Committee on Climate Change to assess the emissions the UK imports as well as those it produces, and recommend policies to tackle them, including making UK industry the greenest in the world. The Tories and the SNP have presided over a lost decade of productivity and allowed the UK and Scotland to fall behind in the green technologies of the future. The most recent figures published for year 2017 show that Gross Expenditure on Research and Development for Scotland as a percentage of GDP was lower than that for the UK, EU and OECD countries. Scotland’s spend per head of population was also lower than the UK. This is a direct result of an SNP government failing to embrace innovation and harnessing Scotland’s full potential. Labour will make sure this never happens again. We will establish a Foundation Industries Sector Council to provide a clean and long-term future for our existing heavy industries like steel and glass and fund R&D into newer technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. A thriving steel industry will be vital to the Green Industrial Revolution. Labour will support our steel through public procurement, taking action on industrial energy prices, investing in R&D, building three new steel recycling plants in the UK and upgrading existing production sites. We will ensure that new technologies aren’t just invented here, but are engineered, manufactured, and exported from here. We will put home grown innovation at the heart of procurement across the UK to support local sourcing and re-shoring, so that every investment we make strengthens our manufacturing and engineering sectors and supply chains and creates hundreds of thousands of good, unionised jobs here at home. This approach will be particularly welcome in Scotland where the SNP’s lack of planning has led to extensive off-shoring of renewable investment. Unlike the SNP or the Tories, Scottish Labour has a coherent Industrial Strategy. One which will ensure investment led growth in R&D - putting Scotland’s economy in a strong global position. We believe in an industrial strategy at the heart of government, driving innovation and strong economic development. Scotland has the ability to lead the way in innovation and only Labour can carry us there. The SNP’s industrial failures have also led to poor use of procurement. The proportion of contracts won by smaller firms has remained largely unchanged in Scotland since 2011. Changing how Scotland’s public contracts work is not just about helping employees, it is about supporting employers as well. Scottish Labour is committed to ensuring more small businesses are part of the procurement supply chain In addition, we will use the power of public procurement to strengthen local jobs and supply chains and require all companies bidding for public contracts to recognise trade unions, pay suppliers on time and demonstrate equalities best practice. As we transition, we will ensure the UK’s automotive sector isn’t left behind by the electric revolution by investing in three new gigafactories and four metal reprocessing plants. By supporting UK-made electrical steel we will ensure robust support for an end to end UK supply chain. We’ll also take on the global plastics crisis by investing in a new plastics re-manufacturing industry - creating thousands of jobs, ending exports of plastic waste and reducing our contribution to ocean pollution. Labour’s progressive trade strategy will help develop the industrial base needed to deliver high-quality exports and the decent jobs that go with them. Labour will champion exports from the environmental goods and services sector, building on the 300,000 jobs that the sector already sustains. We will uphold the highest environmental and social regulations in all our trade relations, not the downgrading of standards as ‘barriers’ to trade. For small businesses, we will ensure no quarterly reporting for businesses below the VAT threshold. ## Skills Our Green Industrial Revolution will create at least one million well-paid, unionised jobs across the UK. We will train people in the skills they need to access these jobs of the future. Apprenticeships are a powerful tool to grow our economy, promote equality and create a skilled workforce for a dynamic Scottish economy of the future. Labour believes we should have a strategic approach, ensuring that the right incentives exist for businesses to invest in high quality apprenticeships, specifically in sectors the economy needs to grow, which is why we support the proposed Climate Apprenticeship Scheme. Labour’s investment will ensure apprenticeships are tied closely to the labour market and a proper manufacturing strategy. Labour also want to inspire a new generation of world-leading scientists by removing barriers that prevent young people, especially girls, from entering the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workforce. ## Transport **Labour will build a sustainable, affordable, accessible and integrated transport system, founded on the principle that transport is an essential public service.Transport is responsible for more than a third of Scotland’s greenhouse gases, while estimates suggest air pollution causes upwards of 2,500 deaths every year.** Cutting emissions will drive Labour’s transport policies at every level of government, with public expenditure focussed on promoting environmental sustainability and contributing to decarbonisation. Our transport programme is focused on creating a better, more accessible public transport system. By improving public transport, Labour will help people to become less reliant on their cars, for our better health, for a cleaner environment and to improve quality of life in our towns and cities. Bus services carry more passengers than any other mode of public transport and provide a lifeline for many people, but they have been devastated by Tory and SNP cuts. Despite the growing social and environmental need to encourage public transport use, annual bus passenger numbers in Scotland have fallen by 106 million over the last 10 years. Labour will end the cuts and ensure that local councils have the funding to provide the transport services their area needs. Scottish Labour recently secured a legislative change to lift the ban on local councils running their own bus services and setting up municipal companies. Scottish Labour would pursue a dedicated fund to support local councils with the up-front costs of running bus services. Scottish Labour would introduce a free bus pass for under-25s. This will help young people to access a range of opportunities and services and support bus services. In the long-term it is our goal to introduce universal free bus travel. This will encourage a shift to public transport and help address the decline in bus passenger numbers, allowing communities to rebuild their bus networks. Labour will deliver improvements for rail passengers by bringing our railways back into public ownership. This will enable us to make fares simpler and more affordable, rebuild the fragmented railways as a nationally integrated public service, cut the wastage of private profit, improve accessibility for disabled people, ensure safe staffing levels and end Driver Only Operation. Our publicly owned rail company will steer network planning and investments. It will co-ordinate main line upgrades, re-signalling, rolling stock replacement and major projects. Our model will ensure continuity of skills, jobs and supply chain capacity to reduce costs, improve productivity and support the economic benefits of Labour’s Green Industrial Revolution. We will ensure that decisions about Scottish routes are made in Scotland and the Scottish Government will have a stake in the publicly owned rail company, giving Scotland a voice in cross-border rail links. Labour will also unlock capacity and improve cross-border rail links, including working towards extending the Borders railway to Carlisle and by completing the full HS2 route to Scotland. A Scottish Labour government in Holyrood would deliver rail electrification and expansion, and consult with local communities to re-open branch lines and stations. We will invest in a direct rail link to Glasgow Airport. At a UK and Scottish level, Labour will ensure that these major infrastructure projects are a model of good employment practice and pay due regard to the environmental impact. In government Labour and Scottish Labour will promote the use of rail freight in order to reduce carbon emissions, air pollutants and congestion on the roads and expand the provision of publicly owned rail freight services. For Scotland’s island communities ferry services are a vital lifeline. Scottish Labour in Holyrood will invest in Scotland’s ferry fleet and take all lifeline services into public hands. We will produce a Scottish Ferry Building Programme which sets out a long-term plan for vessel replacement and port upgrades. This will provide certainty for the shipbuilding sector and ensure that our ferry fleet and infrastructure are fit for purpose. We will protect island communities by retaining Air Discount Schemes, Road Equivalent Tariffs on lifeline ferry routes, and seek to reduce fares to Orkney and Shetland. Labour recognises the Davies Commission’s assessment of pressures on airport capacity in the South East of England. Any expansion of airports must pass our tests on air quality, noise pollution, climate change obligations and countrywide benefits. We will examine fiscal and regulatory options to ensure a response to the climate crisis in a way that is fair to consumers and protects the economy. Taking transport back into public hands will facilitate better integration across Scotland and between different modes of transport. This will allow for the development of integrated ticketing schemes in Scotland and lay the groundwork for a national multi-modal smartcard, as well as supporting better timetable co-ordination. Scottish Labour would make it cheaper and easier to get to work and abolish the SNPs Workplace Parking Levy. Under a Labour government Scotland’s infrastructure budget will be significantly boosted, providing an opportunity to invest in active travel infrastructure. The next Scottish Labour government would bring together transport and land-use planning to create towns and cities where walking and cycling are the best choice: safe, healthy, inclusive, efficient, economical and pollution-free. We will introduce measures to ensure the zones around our schools are safer, with cleaner air. Scottish Labour support the introduction of Low Emission Zones, and believe they should be rolled out in a way that both reflects the severity of the crisis we are facing and the principles of Just Transition. Phasing out the use of diesel and petrol cars will be key to reducing transport emissions and tackling air pollution, but the take-up of ultra-low emission vehicles remains too slow. The SNP has failed to produce a strategy to deliver their aim of phasing out new petrol and diesel cars by 2032. Labour will position the UK at the forefront of the development and manufacture of ultra-low emission vehicles and support their sale. In government Scottish Labour would work to remove the barriers preventing people from accessing less polluting vehicles by increasing charging points and providing support to ensure people are not priced out of green vehicles. Labour will reform taxi and private hire services, including introducing national standards of safety and accessibility and updating regulations to keep pace with technological change and close loopholes to ensure a level playing field. Labour will adopt an ambitious Vision Zero approach to UK road safety, striving for zero deaths and serious injuries. At every level of government Labour will invest to make our neglected local roads, pavements and cycleways safer for the everyday journeys of both drivers and vulnerable road users. We will take action to end nationality-based discrimination in seafarer pay. ## Environment **Scottish Labour would take the necessary action to deliver on our climate change ambitions and protect our environment, boosted by Labour’s Green Industrial Revolution. Ambition is good, but we believe it has to be backed up with clear delivery plans because investing in our environment is investing in our future. We need to defend and extend existing environmental protections, which are threatened by trade deals and corporate lobbying for deregulation.** Scottish Labour supports measures that fully deliver a circular economy. This includes the introduction of deposit return schemes. We will move towards a polycarbonate ban and requiring food manufacturers and retailers to do more to reduce waste. We recognise that tackling air pollution involves difficult decisions, but when it contributes towards 2,500 early deaths in Scotland every year, urgent action is necessary. Our vision is for clean and fair transport systems, where public transport, walking, and cycling are valued as much as motor vehicles. A healthy environment is a basic right which we are all entitled to, and should be able to defend. Scottish Labour sought to amend the Planning Bill to give communities the right to challenge decisions that will have a severe impact on our environment. Labour will also protect our peatlands and introduce carbon impact assessments into all policy processes. To tackle the ecological crisis, we will also develop a coherent Biodiversity Action Plan for post-2020 for land, air and sea, with adequate funding, which the whole country can coalesce around before it is too late. We will develop new preventative and planning provisions to address the causes of urban flooding and a strategy for minimising the impact. Scottish Labour would support the designation of new National Parks (including coastal, marine and city parks) while strengthening local accountability through new models of governance. We will seek to strengthen other protected area designations, with an eco-systems based approach which will guard existing wildlife sites and join up important habitats, while also ensuring more people can enjoy living closer to nature. ## Land Scottish Labour believes land wealth is as much an issue as monetary wealth being in the hands of the few. Scotland’s land ownership patterns are some of the most unequal in the world. We need to ensure more land is in the hands of the many to help create a fairer sustainable Scotland. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 made some modest progress on land reform, but more radical measures are required. We broadly support the recommendations of the Scottish Land Commission. Scottish Labour would legislate to restrict the amount of land that one individual can own, and prevent land ownership via offshore tax havens. We will also complete a public register of landowners as a necessary step to improve transparency and enable meaningful land reform. Scottish Labour would develop a Community Land Fund in line with the recommendations in UK Labour’s ‘Land for the Many’ proposals along with long-term revenue support for community buy-outs. We will use regulation and intervene when land is not used in ways that serve the public interest. ## Rural economy Tory and SNP governments have taken rural communities for granted with chronic underinvestment in transport, broadband and public services. Rural infrastructure and industry have been neglected – particularly in Scotland. Labour will invest in broadband, housing and transport to create jobs and ensure that the nation’s prosperity is felt beyond our large towns and cities. Many of the social and economic challenges rural areas faced are underpinned or exacerbated by poor transport links and connectivity. Labour will give everyone in Scotland access to free full-fibre broadband. Less than 7% of properties in Scotland are currently full fibre, and the coverage in rural areas is much lower. This will benefit Scotland’s rural communities, who are still waiting for superfast broadband due to the Scottish Government’s failure to deliver for rural areas. Scottish Labour supports an “outside-in” approach to digital infrastructure, which would prioritise rural areas. This will help to close the digital divide and address the inequalities it has caused, by giving rural areas a competitive advantage. Labour will ensure that the benefits of our investment in transport reach rural areas. Taking transport back into public hands so it is run for the benefit of passengers rather than profits will particularly benefit rural areas, where many vital routes are not profitable for private operators. Many rural communities have fragile economies and a shortage of high-skill, well-paid jobs, which contributes to depopulation. Scottish Labour would invest in public services in rural areas. We will also support sectors such as agriculture, forestry and fisheries, building on existing skills and natural assets. We will ensure that public money spent in these sectors delivers public goods, providing social and environmental benefits. Scottish Labour would support Scotland’s crofting community and its heritage. We will work to empower crofting communities. The Highlands and Islands Enterprise Agency and the new South of Scotland Enterprise Agency will be key to developing and enhancing their respective regions’ economies, and Scottish Labour would ensure they have the resources they need. Rural poverty is a major issue, but it is often invisible in communities and underestimated by indices such as SIMD. Low wages combined with high transport and fuel costs affect disposable income. Labour’s plans to take public transport back into public ownership will make it easier to regulate prices. Scottish Labour’s plans to retrofit all houses to the highest energy efficiency standards, backed by the National Transformation Fund, would significantly reduce fuel poverty and fuel bills among those living in rural areas. Scottish Labour would introduce a ‘rural-proofing’ process so that all our laws, policies and programmes consider their impact on rural communities. Tourism remains an important industry for Scotland, and our magnificent scenery draws a large number of visitors to rural Scotland. Scottish Labour will develop a new sustainable national plan for tourism based on improving our offer to visitors while reducing resource use and waste, reducing the transport impact, protecting our natural and cultural heritage. Public money will also require improvement in the quality of jobs by raising employment standards, strengthening the quality of life in rural areas. ## Food **Food and food production impacts on a range of policy areas from health to our economy to our environment. Developing a world class food system requires a bold cross-cutting approach.** The upcoming Good Food Nation Bill is an opportunity to create an ambitious piece of legislation bringing together these different aspects of food policy, and Scottish Labour will be pushing for this to deliver the change needed. We believe this should introduce a statutory right to food, backed up by an independent statutory body, clear duties on public bodies and sectoral measures and targets. Scottish Labour recognises the link between the reform of food production and sustainability, including energy use, water, biodiversity, soil, food waste and land use. We believe agricultural subsidies currently fail to support progress and sustainability in the sector. We need a system which encourages more environmentally friendly food production. We will reconfigure funds for farming and fishing to support smaller traders, local economies, community benefits and sustainable practices. ## Animal Welfare **The Tories will sacrifice animal welfare standards in trade deals with other countries.** Labour has an ambitious animal welfare manifesto available in full online. We will stand up for all animals – wild, farmed, and pets. We will close the loopholes and ban fox hunting, end the cruel live export of farmed animals, and improve the rights of pet owners in whatever their accommodation. We will tackle wildlife crime. ## Rebuild Our Public Services * FUNDING * NHS AND SOCIAL CARE * EDUCATION AND SKILLS * POLICE AND SECURITY * JUSTICE * COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT * FIRE AND RESCUE * DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT ## Funding **Universal public services, collectively provided through general taxation and free at the point of use for all, are how we guarantee the right to a good life.** Public services do more than make sure everyone has the basics. They create shared experiences and strengthen social bonds. They make our lives richer and more fulfilling. A decade of Tory cuts has pushed our public services to breaking point. Labour offers real change – we will make the UK’s public services the best and most extensive in the world. Additional funding from a UK Labour government will enable a transformation in Scotland’s public services. We will pay for this by creating a fairer taxation system, asking for a little more from those with the broadest shoulders, and making sure that everyone pays what they owe. We will reverse some of the Tories’ cuts to corporation tax while keeping rates lower than in 2010. As at UK level, Scottish Labour will make the case for those who earn the most to pay a little more income tax in the next Scottish Budget, while freezing National Insurance and income tax rates for everyone else. We will end the unfairness that sees income from wealth taxed at lower rates than income from work. VAT is a regressive tax that hits the poorest hardest and we guarantee no increases in VAT. We will launch the biggest ever crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion and reform the inefficient system of tax reliefs. Public services must also be accountable. Labour will end the current presumption in favour of outsourcing reserved public services and introduce a presumption in favour of insourcing. And we will stop the public getting ripped off taking back all PFI contracts. When services are procured from the private sector, companies will be assessed against best practice public service criteria, including provisions for collective bargaining, fair wage clauses, adherence to environmental standards, effective equalities policies, full tax compliance and application of pay ratios. In the public sector, we will enforce maximum pay ratios of 20:1. We will repair the damage the Tories have done to our social fabric, with a £150 billion Social Transformation Fund. The financial consequences for Scotland will enable the repair and replacement of aging buildings. Public buildings will be modernised to ensure a reduction in their carbon footprint. Our most valuable assets are the dedicated people who work in our public services, but their pay has been cut in real terms. Labour will restore public sector pay to at least pre-financial crisis levels (in real terms), by delivering year-on-year above inflation pay rises, starting with a 5% increase, to reward and retain the people who do so much for us all. Scottish Labour will expect the Scottish Government to follow this lead in devolved pay negotiations. ## NHS and Social Care ## NHS Scotland The National Health Service is one of Labour’s proudest achievements. The right to free at the point of use healthcare, universal and comprehensive in scope is socialism in action. The SNP Government has failed to properly plan for the future of our NHS. Within the next four years health and social care services are facing a potential £1.8 billion black hole and Scotland’s Auditor General has repeatedly warned that current ways of working are financially unsustainable. The SNP’s own waiting time guarantee has been broken over 230,000 times, leaving patients waiting longer for treatment. Thousands of operations are cancelled every month and the four-hour waiting time target in A&E has not been met for two years. Under the SNP hospital capacity has also consistently decreased – there are now 1,500 fewer hospital beds than there were ten years ago. **Investment and reform are urgently needed.** Labour is committed to securing the future of our health service. UK Labour government spending would lead to more than £2 billion additional health funding. Scottish Labour wants to see the resultant funding for Scotland used to strengthen the long-term delivery of care and improve Scotland’s health. Scottish Labour recognises that the issue of women’s health has long been overlooked and under-researched. We will establish a dedicated Women’s Health Fund to promote research, advice and services for women-specific conditions. We will ensure that all women have access to a safe, legal abortion. Scottish Labour has introduced a Bill that aims to create a universal system of free access to period products for all. Primary and community care is crucial to our vision for NHS Scotland. Patients should be able to access a GP on time so we will invest in the primary care workforce, improving numbers in the integrated team, such as physiotherapists and pharmacists and encouraging more doctors to choose general practice as a career choice. UK Labour’s commitment to full-fibre broadband will improve access to digital health in primary care, supporting GP access particularly in rural areas. We support the integration of IT systems so that patient’s histories are available in real-time to all clinicians in primary and secondary care. We also want to stop the expensive over-reliance on the private sector. A new estates plan would end private-finance building projects and build the infrastructure needed in communities to deliver 21st century healthcare. Labour’s investment would also be used to tackle the £914 million building maintenance backlog that the SNP has allowed to build up across our NHS estate. Labour will establish a UK generic drug company. If fair prices are rejected for patented drugs we will use the Patent Act provisions, compulsory licenses and research exemptions to secure access to generic versions. NHS staff are at the heart of our health service but they are under increasing pressure to deliver quality care in difficult circumstances. While NHS workers cope with rota gaps caused by the thousands of vacant posts the SNP’s promised integrated workforce plan has been delayed again and again. Scottish Labour wants NHS Scotland to be the best place to work so we would invest in staff training, putting in place workforce plans so that staffing levels reflect demand. EU nationals are a valued part of our NHS and social care workforce, and we cannot afford to lose them. Following the Tories shambolic handling of the Brexit negotiations, Boris Johnston now wants to sell off control of our NHS to Donald Trump as part of a post-Brexit trade deal. A Labour government will never let this happen – our free, publicly owned health service is only safe in Labour’s hands. **Social Care** Social care has for too long been the poor relation of our health and care system. One in 24 people in Scotland receive funded care support, and they deserve better. Around half a million hospital bed days and over £120 million are lost every year because of delays to hospital discharges. Every day on average, 1,400 mostly older adults are stuck in hospital when they should be cared for in the community or a home setting. Quality social care relies on the workforce. Yet, carers have some of the worst salaries in our economy, with often insecure contracts and inferior terms and conditions. The result is high staff turnover and vacancy rates which the fragmented market in social care services will never be able to resolve. A UK Labour government is committed to improving adult social care. The result for Scotland would be a transformational 25 per cent increase of £600 million every year. Scottish Labour would use this to invest in and reform our broken care system. First and foremost, this funding should be used to provide more caring capacity, ensuring proper time for care visits and bringing dignity back to care users and carers alike. Scottish Labour’s ambition is to reform the system by ending the market forces in social care and creating a Scottish Care Service with increased public delivery of social care. All providers of care, including co-operatives and third-sector organisations, will operate within new framework for social care, ensuring greater consistency and improved standards for care, such as those set out in UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter. A new Scottish Care Service will ensure that delivery remains local and is democratically accountable through Integration Authorities. The reforms would end charges for care at home and allow close working with NHS services so that the needs of individuals with chronic long-term illnesses, such as advanced dementia, are not overlooked. For those wishing to have control over their own care, a range of care options will exist to enable self-directed choices. We also support a lifetime cap on personal contributions to care costs. Scottish Labour want to establish a new statutory workforce forum with the aim of setting standards and improving workforce planning and staff governance. For those not currently covered, this forum will allow for new sectoral collective bargaining arrangements to address wages, terms and conditions. Scottish Labour would also introduce a comprehensive support strategy for informal carers. All carers, including young carers, need more help, including free travel and better mental health support. Scottish Labour recognises the benefits that a ‘Right to Rehab’ would bring to those people with long-term conditions. a This includes support for self-managing conditions with better access to specialist staff and support services. We believe it is possible to properly shift the balance of care from expensive and needless stays in hospital to dignified care at home through a better-funded new structure of social care. ## Mental Health Scotland is experiencing a mental health crisis with too many people struggling to access the help and support that they need. Gaps and failures in the provision of mental health support can have tragic consequences. Scotland has the highest rate of suicide in all of Great Britain and in 2018, over 100 young people died due to suicide. Despite endless pledges from the SNP Government, progress on improving mental health services remains too slow. Last year, over 5,000 children and young people waited over 18 weeks to access specialist services and 7,000 had their referral rejected with few other treatment options. We all have mental health and mental illness can affect anyone, but people living in deprived areas are more likely to be prescribed medication for mental health problems and are three times more likely to experience inpatient psychiatric care than people living in the least deprived areas. Scottish Labour would act to improve and expand mental healthcare, strengthen links with the third sector and make it easier for people to get support in their own communities. We are committed to achieving better integration between education, social work, health and social care, justice and the third sector, so that no one falls through the gaps. NHS services also require additional investment, particularly for people with dementia and children and young people who are experiencing long waits for treatment. We will use the investment generated by a UK Labour government to properly fund crisis services to operate on a 24/7 basis. More alternatives to hospital admission are needed in community settings, including the development of rapid response nursing teams. Supporting the mental wellbeing of young people, as well as providing early intervention when support is needed is a priority. Scottish Labour campaigned for access to school-based counselling for all young people but, one year on from the SNP committing to the policy, thousands of children across the country still don’t have access. We will invest in suicide prevention programmes including research, staff training and additional funding. Good employers and trade unions recognise the benefit of workplace policies that support mental health, including mental health first aid training, but workplace practice is variable. Scottish Labour would invest in a new programme to support these workplace initiatives. Families who have lost loved ones to suicide are themselves at risk of poor mental health. It is essential that health services can offer bereavement support. **Health Improvement** Health inequalities are about fundamental social justice; they are not merely about health services but relate principally to the social determinants of health, which determine healthy or unhealthy lifestyles and behaviours. Labour’s workplace policies and investment in housing, education and communities will enable the root causes of health inequalities to be addressed. The Tories and the SNP are failing to tackle the growing drugs crisis in Scotland. Drug deaths in Scotland have more than doubled since 2008 and the latest figures show that in 2018 more than 1,000 people died from drug misuse in Scotland. A Labour government will establish a Royal Commission to develop a public health approach to substance misuse, focusing on harm reduction rather than criminalisation. In Scotland, addiction services need to be better integrated with mental health treatment. Scottish Labour want increased resources for community-based interventions and restoration of alcohol and drug partnerships’ funding levels to replace the over £40 million of real terms cuts that services have faced since 2014/15. Alcohol consumption is still at harmful levels in Scotland so we support restrictions on licensing, marketing, labelling and affordability. To improve alcohol treatment and early intervention programmes for families with children Scottish Labour want to see the implementation of a social responsibility levy on alcohol sales. Further action is also needed on reducing smoking. Better data collection of smoking habits is needed to implement a person-centred approach in smoking cessation services. Scottish Labour would look at the retail density of tobacco outlets in disadvantaged areas, increase tobacco-free spaces, support staff training and discourage sponsorship by health-harming commodities. Failing to tackle childhood obesity is inflicting a health crisis on a whole generation. A UK Labour government will enforce stricter rules around the advertising of junk food, and Scottish Labour supports measures to regulate price promotions of foods high in fat, salt and sugar. There needs to be improved access to physical activity and Scottish Labour wants to see greater investment in services that fully engage local communities. Screening is an essential preventative health measure, and delays in bowel and breast cancer screening should be eliminated. Local access is also necessary, and should not be undermined by centralising services. Creating a healthier Scotland would be a priority for Scottish Labour. We will engage all our public services at the national and local level to end the damage that poor health does to people, families and communities across Scotland. ## Education and Skills **Education makes our economy stronger, our society richer and our people more fulfilled.** Whether it is businesses finding people with the right skills, a tech start-up making our economy more dynamic, or more people in better paid work and able to contribute to public services, we all benefit from an educated society. But education isn’t just vital to our economy – it lets people develop their talents, overcomes injustices and inequalities and helps us understand each other and form social bonds. ## Early years The SNP’s implementation of their early learning and childcare expansion is behind with the staffing and infrastructure needed, and there have been warnings that the system will not be delivered effectively. Scottish Labour’s alternative vision would mean a properly financed and expansive rollout of provision – our tax policies will enable more money to be spent directly on education from the early years onwards. We will match a planned increase in pre-school entitlement, but will begin to move towards the flexible, all-age, year-round, wrap-around affordable childcare that Scottish families need. Our workforce plan would focus on recruiting and retaining highly qualified staff. We will establish a national framework through sectoral collective bargaining, to deliver attractive pay, terms and conditions, as well as training and career progression. Scottish Labour supports the Give Them Time campaign and stands with parents who wish to defer their child’s entry into primary one. We are in favour of legislation to automatically entitle eligible children to an additional funded year of nursery when their parents use their legal right to defer their child’s entry to school. ## School years Cuts to per pupil spend have fuelled educational inequity at every level in our schools. Cuts to core budgets have created a teacher recruitment and workload crisis, as well as an explosion of multilevel teaching. Teachers are also experiencing increased stress levels and those working in education generally have reported that being in the sector is putting pressure on their health and wellbeing. Pupils with additional support needs are also being poorly served, with fewer specialist teachers and support staff available. Scottish Labour would reinvest in the next generation by replacing core funding for schools, making sure that the Pupil Equity Fund, designed to boost the attainment of those from deprived backgrounds, is truly additional and does not simply plug holes. Our vision for Scottish education also means putting more teachers and support staff, including specialist teachers for those with additional support needs, into our schools and providing local authorities with enough funding to make certain that those children who need additional support are not left behind. ## Curriculum and attainment It is increasingly difficult for those who work in education to assess the academic progress of Scotland’s children. Scotland has been removed from international measures of attainment and the Scottish National Standardised Assessment (SNSA) is not fit for purpose. A Scottish Labour government would scrap the SNSA for Primary 1s, in line with the wishes of Parliament, and review it at P4, P7 and S3 levels. We will also restore the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy and re-enter Scotland into internationally recognised measurements of literacy, numeracy and science (PIRLS and TIMSS). The Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) was a bold policy conceived by Scottish Labour, but it has been undermined by poor implementation from the SNP. Teachers have not received the support and resources they need to successfully deliver the curriculum. There is now a narrower choice of subjects available for pupils in high school and attainment is falling. Exam pass rates at Higher have fallen for the fourth year running – a situation that is now a trend. When it comes to the senior phase, a Scottish Labour government would urgently address the reduction in subjects which pupils can study, as well as halt the increase in teaching in classes covering three and four different levels. **Narrowing the gap** Inequality in attainment must be removed. The gap between those from privileged and less well-off backgrounds is still too high, and looked after children also continue to face lower attainment rates. Scottish Labour’s aspiration is to end educational inequality in a generation. Scottish Labour would create a new statutory obligation on government to report on the attainment gap between children from lower and higher income backgrounds, and make success in closing the gap a key performance benchmark of the school inspection system. We would also reverse the decision to charge schools for exam appeals, as this disadvantages pupils from state schools. Scottish Labour would end all state subsidy to private independent schools, as a contribution towards achieving a more socially just and inclusive society. Scottish Government statistics show that a quarter of children live in families that cannot afford to save for rainy days and nearly 20% live in families that cannot take a holiday away from home once a year. Expensive school trips can create division between privileged and less well-off pupils and ultimately, inequity of opportunity. A Scottish Labour government would introduce an extra-curricular access fund, which will provide grants for young people from low income backgrounds to access school trips that are currently unaffordable. Labour’s ban on zero hours contracts will prevent such a path from being classified as a positive destination for young people leaving school. While we await the outcomes of the Independent Care Review, we believe there is already a consensus on some short-term actions that should be implemented now. Local authorities need sufficient resources to provide the loving and supportive environments that looked after young people need to thrive. Scottish Labour’s plan for free access to period products gives statutory underpinning to the requirement for schools, colleges and universities to provide period products for free. ## Free school meals Scottish Labour would seek to extend the current universal provision of free school meals to include all school years using the financial consequences of Labour’s expansion of the scheme in England. We will also roll out the provision of free meals during holidays, ending the scandal of children going hungry during the school holidays. ## Colleges and Universities Scotland’s Further Education (FE) colleges are facing a funding crisis and financial problems are set to deepen in the years ahead. Since the SNP took power, and their subsequent botched regionalisation of the sector, further education in Scotland has suffered. Colleges have faced underinvestment, students have seen their numbers plummet by 120,000 and staff numbers have also declined. The government has also failed to allocate the funds necessary to maintain the college estate. Scottish Labour believes that colleges have a vital role to play in lifelong learning, enabling everyone to upskill or retrain at any point in life. We would ensure that they are properly resourced and that there is parity of esteem with institutions in the higher education sector. The SNP has deprioritised funding for universities and as a consequence higher education in Scotland has suffered from sustained cuts. Students have borne the consequence of this as the government have invested increasingly less in them. Scottish Labour supports maintaining the two year post-study work offer to international graduates so we can keep talent developed in UK universities and make sure students choose to study in Scotland. Scottish Labour would create an education system fit for the 21st century by providing the investment that further and higher education in Scotland desperately need. ## Investing in students The SNP has done incredible damage to our student support system. They let students down by scrapping their pledge to scrap student debt in 2007, again in 2012 with their ‘reforms’ to loans, and once more with their timid response to the Student Support Review. The Review should have been a start towards creating equity and fairness to our system. However, the government’s watered down response to the Review was disappointing. Scottish Labour would create a system that works for the many, and that begins by implementing a Minimum Student Income (as recommended by the Student Support Review) tied to our proposed real living wage of £10 per hour. This will benefit Scottish domiciled full-time students studying at college and university at either further or higher education level up to degree level. Scottish Labour has brought forward a Bill to regulate rents in the private sector and we will apply these provisions to student accommodation. We will also encourage universities to educate students on their housing rights and how they can take steps to enforce them. Student housing must also be a strategic planning issue and not an afterthought. Educational institutions must be part and parcel of the dialogue, as well as members of the community. ## Lifelong learning It’s essential that Scotland has the skills it needs for the changing economy. All individuals must also be supported to realise their full potential, at any age. Community Learning and Development (CLD) supports primarily disadvantaged or vulnerable groups and individuals of all ages to engage in learning, with a focus on bringing about change in their lives and communities. Austerity cuts have decimated this sector with a considerable loss of expertise. Scottish Labour would reinvest in these services and ensure the youth work sector is appropriately funded to make certain that all young people have the personal development support they need to succeed in education, training and employment. We would strengthen the voices of young people by ensuring they are represented on relevant national and local bodies with a statutory right to consultation. We will develop a national youth work development strategy to recruit, train and sustain a secure and qualified workforce. Workers need better skills that reflect the challenges of automation and the real economy, so we can improve productivity, pay and work-life balance, yet a quarter of the workforce is receiving no training. Scottish Labour would develop a new National Plan for Adult Learning with national frameworks and local delivery. This will include workforce learning building in initiatives such as Scottish Union Learning, as well as placing duties on employers to raise educational standards. ## Police and Security **The SNP has failed to give Police Scotland the support and resources they need to fight crime and keep Scotland safe. Their approach to centralisation has led to falling officer numbers, with local divisions bearing the brunt of cuts.** Local officers report feeling that resources available to deal with routine response and community engagement activities are increasingly stretched over larger geographical areas. Their important work to strengthen connections with communities is being hampered by the organisational pressures and diminished resources of the police and other public services. Under the SNP, violent crime in Scotland is rising. Without more financial support, senior officers have warned that further officers will have to be cut. Scottish Labour would invest in Police Scotland so it can deliver a balanced workforce, allowing officers to focus on policing, enabled by well-resourced support staff who are so critical to their success. We would stop the cuts to local divisions. We would ensure that officers working in local areas not only feel valued but also have sufficient resources to take part in proactive, partnership work across their community. To be effective, our police must serve their communities and work collaboratively with youth workers, social workers, mental health services, schools, drug rehabilitation programmes and other public agencies. A police force working within our communities, with the capacity to gather local intelligence, is also the frontline of our domestic security - the first eyes and ears of effective counter-terrorism. Continued cuts put our domestic security at risk. We would place local democratic accountability at the heart of a modern, responsive police force with a statutory role for local government in local policing plans and a renewed focus on policing by consent. Police Scotland is among those with the least capital funding of all police forces in the UK. This has resulted in Police Scotland using out of date ICT, a run-down fleet and police stations that have been forced to close or are no longer fit for service. Scottish Labour would give Police Scotland the capital funding it needs. ## Security A Labour government will address the current UK government’s failure to take effective measures against a growing problem of extreme or violent radicalisation. We will ensure closer counter terrorism co-ordination between the police and the security services, combining neighbourhood expertise with international intelligence. We will ensure the powers exercised by the security services are proportionate and used in accordance with human rights. We will review the circumstances requiring judicial warrant. We will ensure agencies are accountable and strengthen the powers of the Joint Intelligence and Security Committee. We will constrain the right of the Prime Minister to suppress publication of committee reports. A Labour government will review our security strategies. We will review the Prevent programme to assess both effectiveness and potential to alienate communities and consider alternatives including safeguarding programmes to protect those vulnerable to the recruitment propaganda and ideologies of the far-right and others who promote terror as a political strategy. We will review the Protect programme to ensure that public authorities take appropriate security measures, without alienating the communities they serve. We will evaluate the mobile phone trials with the aim of introducing an emergency alert system. We will use our diplomatic services, our aid budgets and our international standing to promote peaceful solutions to conflicts and tackle the risks arising from poverty, natural catastrophes and population displacements. Our national security is linked to global threats. We will respect international law and avoid needless military interventions. Our security co-operation arrangements with EU neighbours are essential for our safety. If the British people confirm their decision to leave, we will prioritise agreement of a new UK-EU Security Treaty. Our border security prevents serious crimes including child abduction, people trafficking, smuggling of drugs and guns, terrorism and modern day slavery. The Tories have further weakened our borders, cutting another 200 jobs over the last four years. They have failed to deliver exit checks. In place of an effective border control they have required landlords, teachers and medical staff to work as unpaid immigration officers, creating a hostile environment. A Labour government will review our border controls to make them more effective. **Cyber Security** Cybercrime and cyberwarfare are growing, all around the world. Every aspect of our lives, from the NHS, to our nuclear facilities, from transport systems to communications networks are vulnerable. A Labour government, ever more dependent on digital technology, will overhaul our cyber security by creating a co-ordinating minister and regular reviews of cyber-readiness. We will review the role and remit of the National Cyber Security Centre to determine whether it should be given powers as an auditing body, with the ability to issue warnings to private and public sector organisations and designate risk. We will also review the structures and roles of the National Crime Agency, to strengthen the response to all types of economic crime, including cybercrime and fraud and ensure a modern, technologically advanced police service that has the capacity and skills to combat online crime, supported by a new national strategy on cybercrime and fraud. ## Justice **Last year around a quarter of a million crimes were recorded in Scotland. Non-sexual violent crimes increased by 10%** Crime rates reflect the society we live in. Tory austerity continued and exacerbated by the SNP has eroded the fabric of our local communities. Where the Tories and SNP have failed, UK and Scottish Labour governments will take action to address the causes of crime and end the epidemic. We will invest in our communities and public services to build the stronger, fairer society that keeps us all safer. Investing in our criminal justice services, Scottish Labour would focus on crime prevention and early interventions, giving people the best chance of rehabilitation. Smarter justice requires cross-government action to reduce the impact of adverse childhood experiences and to break the vicious cycle of poverty, inequalities and crime. We would champion a joined-up, trauma informed approach, fostering close working relationships between criminal justice and education authorities, health services and others. We will build on the brilliant work done by the Violence Reduction Unit and ensure vulnerable people get the support they need. This is only possible with a government committed to boosting support for public health, mental health and early years services. Prison is not the best place to address the drug addictions, mental illnesses and debts that lead many people into crime. However, a third of community sentences are not completed - the system is failing to respond to the chaotic lives of many individuals who receive them. This is also reflected in the number of short sentences, and lack of robust alternatives, being given out Scotland. When individuals present a danger to the public then they must be put in prison. However, well-resourced community sentences that include the wider support individuals need including through care, social work and skills building can help get people’s lives back on track and reduce reoffending. This, rather than ineffective short sentences, is what will make Scotland safer. Scotland’s prisons are dangerously over capacity. Assaults on staff and stress related illness are rising, and attempts to prepare prisoners for outside life are being harmed, as authorities struggle to cope amid a lack of resources from the SNP. The presumption against 12-month sentences is welcome but will not be the silver bullet required to stop the rising prison population. The SNP must confront the reality that we need to invest in a modern prison service that responds to challenges such as our aging prisoner population. We must properly fund alternatives to custody in order to deliver justice and public safety. Legal Aid cuts mean essential legal help is too often denied. We supported the Scottish Government’s review into Legal Aid, to create a simpler, more sustainable system but their lack of timely response is risking access to justice. Scottish Labour would seek to bring in a new way of setting fees paid to solicitors that ensures solicitors are in paid fairly for the hours they work and people have access to the Legal Aid that they need. Scottish Labour wants to ensure Scotland has a justice system that the public can have confidence in. We need to reform and improve sentencing policy in Scotland, ensuring there is transparency in the system so that victims and their families can have confidence in it. While it is part of the Sentencing Council’s remit to promote awareness and understanding of sentencing policy and practice among the public, we believe individual victims and their families need much more individual support and advice. We would work closely with the Sentencing Council to develop the most effective ways to do this. Violence against women and girls is unacceptable but often their experiences are made much worse by the criminal justice system. Victims of rape and sexual assault have been badly let down by forensic services and the courts. Scottish Labour would tackle the failings identified in forensic services for victims of rape and sexual assault as a matter of urgency and seek to deliver tailored support throughout the court process. Recent research into the need for reform of Scotland’s legal system is welcome and must be understood and responded to in the context of low rape conviction rates. Violence towards public-facing staff in the private and public sector is a growing problem. Scottish Labour introduced legislation that started to address this issue, and we will strengthen the law further with comprehensive new legislation. We will also reform culpable homicide legislation. Labour will establish public inquiries into historical injustices including blacklisting and Orgreave, and ensure the second phase of the Grenfell Inquiry has the confidence of all those affected, especially the bereaved families and survivors. We will ensure that the recommendations of inquiries into undercover policing operations recognise cross-border operations. Labour will release all papers on the Shrewsbury 24 trials and 37 Cammell Laird shipyard workers and introduce a Public Accountability Bill. We will ensure fair compensation for the victims of contaminated blood products across the UK. ## Communities and Local Government **Scottish Labour would properly fund local councils after a decade of devastating SNP cuts so that they can breathe new life into local communities and high streets.** While some politicians can seem distant and detached, our local councillors live among us, shopping on the same high street, using the same parks and leisure centres and sending their children to the same schools. Thriving local councils are vital to Labour’s democratic transformation of the economy. Councils are the collective voice of local communities and on the frontline in delivering many essential public services. Tory cuts, which have been passed onto local councils by the SNP at four times the rate of cuts to the Scottish Government budget, have plunged our councils into crisis and pushed many services to breaking point. Further to this, councils now have control over less of their funding. SNP government funding that must be spent on specific policy initiatives now makes up an increasing proportion of total revenue funding; in total, in 2019/20, councils will spend 12.1% of their revenue funding meeting national priorities up from 6.6% in 2018/19. The result is councils making larger reductions to services outside Scottish Government priorities. These include economic development, waste management and planning services, which are still important for maintaining the health, safety and wellbeing of residents. Scottish Labour would not only stop the cuts to our local authorities, we would empower local government and provide it with other ways to raise money. We would scrap the Council Tax and replace it with a progressive alternative based on up to date valuations, and give councils new revenue raising powers including land value capture, and finally implementing the tourist tax. Our high streets are being decimated by store closures and jobs losses. High streets are more than places to shop, they are places we go for culture, company and character. Labour will revive high streets by stopping bank branch closures, banning ATM charges and Scottish Labour would empower local government to put empty shops to good use. Business rates are causing real issues for high street retailers and others but the Scottish Government’s approach to review has been narrow and deeply unambitious. Scottish Labour would adopt an approach that engages with the challenges outlined by the business community, and explores ideas of local devolution and the scope of rates relief to drive up environmental standards and fair business practices. We would also seek to develop a retail sector industrial strategy. We welcomed the social isolation strategy but local councils, which are key to building cohesive communities, are bearing the brunt of SNP budget cuts. Many of the public places and institutions that previously brought communities together, such as libraries, community centres, and public parks, have been closed. Scottish Labour would properly fund our local government so that the people and services that build cohesive communities are protected. Libraries must be preserved for future generations, with updated Wi-Fi and computers. We would also halt the rapid closure of public toilets across Scotland. Labour will stop Crown Post Office closures and bring Royal Mail back into public ownership at the earliest opportunity, reuniting it with the Post Office and creating a publicly owned Post Bank run through the post office network to ensure every community has easy access to face-to-face, trusted and affordable banking. Labour will build community wealth by giving communities the powers and resources they need to keep public spending circulating in the local economy, rather than being sucked offshore to corporate tax havens. Scottish Labour would extend community control in the private sector by supporting local and community businesses. We would bring forward a proper legal definition for co-operative ownership, while the SNIB like other regional development banks would be charged with helping support our co-operative sector. Young people have been let down by the Tories and SNP. Too many young people now have nowhere to go, nothing to do and no one to help them with their problems. Scottish Labour would build properly funded, professionally staffed youth services and guarantee every young person has access to local, high quality youth work. ## Fire and Rescue **The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has lost more than 700 officers as a result of the SNP’s approach to centralisation, and appliances are being left unavailable to deal with fire calls because of a lack of staff.** The current use of retained firefighters is also under pressure. Four out of five of Scotland’s 356 fire stations rely wholly, or in part, on RDS or volunteer firefighters. However, under new proposals being examined by the government and SFRS, firefighters could take on expanded roles that would include tackling terrorism, giving medical assistance and playing a greater role in the community. Scottish Labour would stop cuts to SFRS and undertake an evaluation of the capacity of whole-time, volunteer and retained firefighters to take on any additional roles and the impact of taking on these roles on the core services that they provide. Firefighters must have the capacity to train and maintain their current core competencies before taking on any additional roles. Scottish Labour would ensure that building regulations, in particular those related to cladding, are fit for purpose and properly enforced. ## Digital, Culture, Media and Sport ## Culture Those living in more deprived areas and those with a lower income are less likely to attend cultural events and participate in cultural activities. It is therefore essential that local culture is open to as many people as possible, so that those who do not have the means to travel further afield are able to access it. However, the SNP Government’s underfunding of our communities has resulted in massive cuts to cultural services across Scotland. The next Scottish Labour government will properly fund councils and ensure arts and culture are open and available to everyone. We will also require organisations in receipt of public funding to pay proper trade union rates for the job and allow workers the opportunity to join a recognised trade union. ## Media A Labour government will ensure a healthy future for our all public service broadcasters, including BBC Alba and S4C. We will protect free TV licences for over-75s. A free and fair press is vital to protecting democracy and holding the powerful to account. We will address misconduct and the unresolved failures of corporate governance raised by the second stage of the abandoned Leveson Inquiry. We will take steps to ensure that Ofcom is better able to safeguard a healthy plurality of media ownership and to put in place clearer rules on who is fit and proper to own or run TV and radio stations. We will take action to address the monopolistic hold the tech giants have on advertising revenues and will support vital local newspapers and media outlets. We will consult media sector workers and trade unions to establish an inquiry into the fake news undermining trust in media, democracy and public debate. ## Digital Digital and technological advancements bring challenges, but also huge opportunities. In the age of AI and automation, digital connectivity will underpin our future economy. We will need world-class digital infrastructure in which everyone can share. Labour will deliver free full-fibre broadband to all by 2030. We will establish British Broadband, with two arms: British Digital Infrastructure (BDI) and the British Broadband Service (BBS). We will bring the broadband-relevant parts of BT into public ownership and guarantee the jobs of all workers in existing broadband infrastructure and retail broadband work. BDI will roll out the remaining 90-92% of the full-fibre network, and acquire necessary access rights to existing assets. BBS will coordinate the delivery of free broadband in tranches as the full-fibre network is rolled out, beginning with communities least well-served by existing broadband networks. Unitary taxation of multinationals, including tech giants will pay for the operating costs of the public full-fibre network. The plan will boost jobs, tackle regional inequality, and improve quality of life as part of a mission to connect the country. We will enforce a legal duty of care to protect our children online, impose fines on companies that fail on online abuse and empower the public with a Charter of Digital Rights. ## Sport Physical activity is key to achieving healthy lifestyles but too often low-income families are priced out of participating in sports clubs and activities. Poor levels of participation are exacerbated by deprivation. Scottish Labour believe that work to encourage individuals into sport needs to target more deprived areas and ensure that elite sporting role models are representative of all backgrounds. Local government budgets have faced a decade of SNP cuts while demand for services continues to rise. Scottish Labour wants to end the cuts to councils and see local services, such as leisure centres and sports in schools, properly resourced. It is clear that activity in school plays a key part in encouraging young people, and especially girls, to be physically active. Schools should be given the funding to deliver increasing levels of free and affordable access to sport so that all can benefit. We will introduce a Right to Play ensuring that all children have access to spaces to play and be active. We would support councils to keep school facilities open over school holidays. Scottish Labour first established the Active Schools Network in 2004 and we want to see the results of UK Government expenditure in school sports and healthy living programmes to be used for school sports in Scottish schools. Access to appropriate physical activity for individuals with long-term conditions can be limited across parts of Scotland. Scottish Labour would address the gaps in provision ## Gambling A Labour government will curb gambling advertising in sports and introduce a new Gambling Act fit for the digital age, establishing gambling limits, a levy for problem gambling funding and mechanisms for consumer compensations. ## Civic Society In the years of austerity it was non-government organisations that often held the social fabric of our society together, protecting our communities from even greater harm and providing precisely targeted support. As we rebuild our public services we will support and maintain the social capital values of these organisations. ## Tackle Poverty and Inequality * WORK * WOMEN AND EQUALITIES * MIGRATION * SOCIAL SECURITY * HOUSING ## Work **Work should provide a decent life for all, guaranteeing not just dignity and respect in the workplace, but also the income and leisure time to allow for a fulfilling life outside it.** Under the Tories, pay has stagnated while insecurity and inequality are rising. Work no longer guarantees a way out of poverty - of over one million people in poverty across Scotland, there were 640,000 working-age adults in poverty after housing costs. Real wages are still lower than before the financial crisis, while dividends paid to shareholders are up 85%. Labour will eradicate in-work poverty in our first term by tackling the structural causes of poverty and inequality, such as low pay and high living costs, while raising the floor provided by our social safety net. Too many people have found themselves in a spiral of debt as wages fall and housing costs rise. Labour will cap the total amount that can be paid in overdraft fees or interest on a loan We will introduce a Real Living Wage of £10 per hour for all workers aged 16 and over, giving 700,000 people in Scotland a pay rise. Labour will use savings to public finances to help small businesses manage the extra cost. We will give workers a stake in the companies they work for – and a share of the profits they help create – by requiring large companies to set up ‘Inclusive Ownership Funds’ (IOFs). Up to 10% of a company will be owned collectively by employees, with dividend payments distributed equally among all, capped at £500 a year and the rest being used to top up the Climate Apprenticeship Fund. The cap will rise to ensure that no more than 25% of dividends raised by IOFs is redistributed in this way. And we will explore other innovative ways of responding to low pay, including a pilot of Universal Basic Income. The early preparatory work in Scotland will benefit from a UK government that can require the cooperation of HMRC and the DWP to properly test the pilot models. Growing numbers of the workforce are self-employed. While for some this brings freedom and autonomy, it can also bring insecurity. Self-employed people will benefit from a broad range of our policies, from childcare and full-fibre broadband to face-to-face lending and business support through our Post Bank. We will also seek to develop tailored support and protections for the self-employed, including: collective income protection insurance schemes, annual income assessment for those on Universal Credit, and better access to mortgages and pension schemes. We will tackle late payments that leave small businesses and the self-employed waiting months to be paid, including strengthening Scottish procurement rules to ban late payers from public procurement. ## Ministry for Employment Rights Throughout history, working people in the UK have improved their lives by coming together to demand rights and protections. Even after decades in which workers’ rights have been cut back and their unions’ capacity to defend them have been slashed, the Tories believe that workers’ terms and conditions should be dictated by employers on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis. The SNP’s Fair Work Action Plan is more about rhetoric than protecting workers rights. The standards are inadequate, and they lack any effective means by which the Scottish Government’s commitments and the obligations of employers can be monitored and enforced. As is so often the case with the SNP, they emphasise process over real change. We are proud of the trade union movement’s historic achievements in giving people a voice at work through collective action. It is not just part of our history; it is also part of our future. Only by shifting the balance of power back towards workers will we achieve decent wages, security and dignity at work. The next Labour government will irreversibly transform people’s lives for the better through the biggest extension of workers’ rights in history. We will give working people a voice at the Cabinet table by establishing a Ministry for Employment Rights. We will start to roll out sectoral collective bargaining across the economy, bringing workers and employers together to agree legal minimum standards on issues such as pay and working hours that every employer in the sector must follow. Sectoral collective bargaining will increase wages and reduce inequality. Negotiation, not ‘take it or leave it’. This will stop good employers being undercut by bad employers. We will tackle insecurity by: • Giving everyone full rights from day one on the job • Strengthening protections for whistleblowers and rights against unfair dismissal for all workers, with extra protections for pregnant women, those going through the menopause, and terminally ill workers • Ending bogus self-employment and creating a single status of ‘worker’ for everyone apart from those genuinely self-employed in business on their own account, so that employers cannot evade workers’ rights; and banning overseas-only recruitment practices. • Introducing a legal right to collective consultation on the implementation of new technology in workplaces • Banning zero-hour contracts and strengthening the law so that those who work regular hours for more than 12 weeks will have a right to a regular contract, reflecting those hours. Workers will have a right to a minimum contract of 16 hours average per week. We will help people balance work and family life by: • Increasing wages through sectoral collective bargaining; • Requiring breaks during shifts to be paid; • Requiring cancelled shifts to be paid and proper notice for changes in hours; • Giving all workers the right to flexible working; • Extending statutory maternity pay from 9 to 12 months; • Doubling paternity leave from two weeks to four and increasing statutory paternity pay. • Introducing statutory bereavement leave, guaranteeing workers time off to grieve the loss of close family members or following miscarriage; • Introducing 4 new bank holidays celebrating our four patron saints’ days; • Reviewing family-friendly employment rights, including rights to respond to family emergencies. We will make sure people are treated equally at work by: • Requiring employers to devise and implement plans to eradicate the gender pay gap – and pay inequalities underpinned by race, sex and/or disability – or face fines; • Requiring employers to maintain workplaces free of harassment, including harassment by third parties; • Increasing protection against redundancy for people wherever they work. • Giving statutory rights to equalities representatives; • Setting up a Royal Commission to bring health (including mental health) and safety legislation up to date; • Banning unpaid internships. We will remove unfair and unnecessary restrictions on trade unions, allowing people to come together and speak up on issues that affect them at work. We will: • Allow trade unions to use secure electronic and workplace ballots; • Remove unnecessary restrictions on industrial action; • Strengthen and enforce trade unions’ right of entry to workplaces to organise, meet and represent their members and to recruit; • Ban union-busting, strengthen protection of trade union representatives against unfair dismissal and union members from intimidation, harassment, threats and blacklisting; • Repeal anti-trade union legislation including the Trade Union Act 2016 and create new rights and freedoms for trade unions to help them win a better deal for working people; • Simplify the law around union recognition; • Give union reps adequate time for union duties. We will develop collective income protection insurance schemes for the self-employed. We will introduce a maximum workplace temperature to protect workers and require employers to take counteracting measures. Scottish Labour would seek to build on this new framework by using devolved powers to develop a new Good Work Plan. This plan will not only encourage good practice, it will require compliance. In particular, we would establish a Scottish Monitoring Agency to strengthen and enforce public procurement rules on employment standards. For years, the UK has been in breach of our international obligations. We will bring UK law into line with the International Labour Organisation standards it has ratified, so the UK leads the world, instead of engaging in a race to the bottom. ## Working Time Time off to rest, relax and be with family is essential to a happy and fulfilling life, but workers in the UK put in some of the longest hours in Europe. Labour will tackle excessive working hours. Within a decade we will reduce average full-time weekly working hours to 32 across the economy, with no loss of pay, funded by productivity increases. We will meet this target by: • Ending the opt-out provision for the EU Working Time Directive and enforcing working time regulations; • Setting up an independent Working Time Commission to advise on raising minimum holiday entitlements and reducing maximum weekly working time; • Mandating bargaining councils to negotiate reductions in working time • Investing to increase productivity and making sure workers share the benefits. Scottish Labour would enact the Statutory Instrument required to compel large shops to close on New Year’s Day and support the UK commitment to review unpaid overtime. ## Enforcement Rights don’t mean anything unless they’re enforced, but that is not happening under the Tories or the SNP. That doesn’t just hurt workers who lose out, it is also bad for employers who follow the law and are undercut by unscrupulous competitors prepared to break it. Strong trade unions are the best and most effective way to enforce rights at work. Labour will also introduce a new, unified Workers’ Protection Agency to enforce workplace rights, including the Real Living Wage. It will be given extensive powers to inspect workplaces and bring prosecutions and civil proceedings on workers’ behalf. We will keep employment tribunals free, extend their powers, and introduce new Labour Courts with a stronger role for people with industrial experience on panels. ## Rewriting the Rules Social justice also means levelling the playing field between small and big business, and ensuring that democracy and accountability are valued across society, including in the private sector. Businesses are the heartbeat of our economy, creating jobs, wealth and innovations. But the upper echelons of corporate Britain have been corrupted by a culture in which the long-term health of a company is sacrificed for a quick buck for a few: a short-term culture has seen some treasured companies asset-stripped, leaving workers, small business suppliers and pensioners in the lurch. Too often, the link between reward and long-term performance is broken for short-term greed. Labour will take on short-termism and corporate greed, making sure good businesses are rewarded not undercut. We will rewrite the rules of the economy and ensure everyone plays by them. We will amend the Companies Act, requiring companies to prioritise long-term growth while strengthening protections for stakeholders, including smaller suppliers and pension funds. We will tackle late payments that leave small businesses waiting months to be paid, including strengthening Scottish procurement rules to ban late payers from public procurement. We will require one third of boards to be reserved for elected worker-directors and give them more control over executive pay – because when those who depend on a company have a say in running it, that company does better and lasts longer. We will introduce a broader “public interest test” to prevent hostile takeovers and asset-stripping weakening our industrial base and destroying treasured home-grown companies. And we will give workers a voice on public bodies such as the Competition and Markets Authority. We will let struggling companies go into protective administration, so they can be sold as a going concern rather than collapsing into insolvency. Audits are vital to corporate accountability, but the auditing industry is dominated by a few players riddled with conflicts of interest. Labour will separate audit and accounting activities in major firms and impose more robust rules on auditors. We will tackle regulatory capture and streamline regulation by creating a new Business Commission, responsive to parliamentary select committees. ## Social Justice Commission Labour will usher in a new era of social justice in the UK. Everyone in our society should be allowed to flourish regardless of what class or postcode they are born into, or the colour of their skin. But that’s impossible when you cannot meet your most basic needs and have to choose between eating and heating your home. The UK is one of the richest countries in the world, but under the Tories millions of people can’t make ends meet. They tell us we shouldn’t care about inequality, because social mobility allows those who work hard to get on. But nobody becomes a billionaire by hard work alone, and as inequality has grown, it has become more entrenched. For Labour, the true measure of fairness is not social mobility but social justice. Implicit in social mobility is the idea that poverty and inequality are acceptable provided some people can climb the social ladder. Social justice, on the other hand, demands that we end poverty, reduce inequality and create a society in which the conditions for a fulfilling life are available to everyone. Labour will replace the Social Mobility Commission with a Social Justice Commission, based in the Treasury, with wide-ranging powers to hold us, and future governments, to account. ## Women and Equalities **The Labour Party is the party of equality, committed to achieving a world free from all forms of bigotry and discrimination. Whether campaigning on the streets or passing legislation in government, Labour is the only party to consistently stand with women, disabled people, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, and LGBT+ communities.** The Labour Party is the party of equality, committed to achieving a world free from all forms of bigotry and discrimination. Whether campaigning on the streets or passing legislation in government, Labour is the only party to consistently stand with women, disabled people, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, and LGBT+ communities. The Tories have failed to tackle society’s burning injustices. Instead they inflicted injustice after injustice on women, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and LGBT+ communities and disabled people. Over 85% of the burden of Tory/Lib Dem cuts have fallen on the shoulders of women. Labour will create a new UK Department for Women and Equalities, with a full time Secretary of State, responsible for ensuring all our policies and laws are equality impacted assessed in order to deliver a fairer society for women and all under-represented groups. We will establish a modernised National Women’s advisory body to contribute to a Labour government. We are guided by our firm commitment to the Human Rights Act and Convention on Human Rights that have been consistently attacked by the Tories. We will ratify both the Istanbul Convention on preventing domestic abuse and the ILO Convention on Ending Violence and Harassment at work. In Scotland, we will also seek to strengthen the delivery of the socio-economic duty and fully incorporate human rights treaties into Scots law, with clear mechanisms for resolving problems and remedying infringements. We also support the incorporation of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). We will put class at the heart of the UK’s equality agenda and create a new ground for discrimination on the basis of socio-economic disadvantage. ## Women Labour will put women at the heart of our government and programme. Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act, yet women still earn 13% less than men. Labour will take action to close the gender pay gap by 2030. We will also: • Deliver gender pay equality by making the state responsible for enforcing The new Workers’ Protection Agency working with HMRC will ensure that employers take equal pay seriously and take positive action to close the gender pay gap. Women will no longer be left to take enforcement action by themselves through the courts. • Require all employers with over 250 employees to obtain government certification on gender equality or face further auditing and fines. By the end of 2020, we will lower the threshold to workplaces with 50 employees, whilst providing the necessary additional support for small businesses. • Revolutionise parents’ rights by increasing paid maternity leave from nine to 12 months, doubling paternity leave to four weeks and extending pregnancy protection. We will ban the dismissal of pregnant women without prior approval of the inspectorate. • Transform the workplace and require all large employers to have flexible working, including a menopause policy, and consider changes to sickness and absence practices. • Enable positive action for recruitment to roles where employers can justify the need for more diversity and introduce a right for all workers to request flexibility over their hours from the first day of employment. • Ensure that the single-sex-based exemptions contained in the Equality Act 2010 are understood and fully enforced in service provision. • Create a safer society for women and prioritise domestic abuse as a health issue, introducing 10 days paid leave for survivors of domestic abuse. In Scotland, we will continue to make the case that women’s refuges and other services receive the long-term sustainable funding they need. We will also seek to strengthen the criminal law on hate crimes to cover misogyny and violence against women and girls. • Increase women’s representation across parliament by building on the Equality Act, passed by the last Labour government, and enact Section 106 so that all political parties publish diversity data about electoral candidates. ## Race Equality Achieving racial equality is a bedrock Labour value. It has never been more important than in the current climate. We are proud of the way our country has been shaped by the contributions, cultures and values of people from around the world. The Tories have fanned the flames of racism using difference to divide. They have made BAME people pay the price for their austerity project and scapegoated refugees and migrants. Never was this starker than with their ‘hostile environment’, leading to the scandalous treatment of the Windrush generation. Labour will ensure a pathway to economic inclusion for all, putting an end to all forms of racism and discrimination in our economy and society. Inclusion will be at the heart of its UK programme for government. We will: • Seek to end the politics of hate and commission an independent review into the threat of far-right extremism and how to tackle it. • Put wealth and power in the hands of the many, extend pay gap reporting to BAME groups and tackle pay discrimination on the basis of race. • Commit our National Investment Bank, together with the Scottish National Investment Bank, to address discrimination in access to finance, which many BAME business owners face and will take action to ensure that BAME and women business owners have access to government contracts and spending. • Create an Emancipation Educational Trust to educate around migration and colonialism, and to address the legacy of slavery and teach how it interrupted a rich and powerful black history which is also British history. Scottish Labour would ensure that our curriculum and cultural institutions address Scotland’s role in colonialism and slavery. ## Religious discrimination Labour is the party of equality: we will work to build a society free from anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Only recently, we have seen concerning incidents of sectarian behavior in Scotland. It is right that in light of such instances of intolerance, progress needs to be made to properly address these issues in criminal law. Scottish Labour would also target sectarianism through education, and by working with local communities. ## Disability with Dignity Over the last 10 years, through a catalogue of punitive welfare policies, the dignity of people with disabilities has been degraded by the Tories. Not one, but two, UN reports describe the government as having committed “systematic violations” of the rights of disabled people. Families have also struggled because of the SNP’s failure to prioritise social care. More disabled people are now living in poverty and people have died because of the UK Government’s choice to make the most vulnerable pay for tax cuts for the few. Labour will end this cruelty, restoring the protections that disabled people and their families – many of whom shoulder the cost of their care – should expect in one of the richest countries in the world. Labour supports the principle of ‘nothing about us without us’. We will: • Champion the social model of disability throughout government. Through our new Department for Women and Equalities, we will ensure that disabled people can be independent and equal in society, with choice and control over their own lives. • Transform the workplace for disabled people by requiring that all employers be trained to better support them, while introducing mandatory disability pay-gap reporting for companies with over 250 employees. • End disability discrimination and update the Equality Act to introduce new specific duties including disability leave, paid and recorded separately from sick leave. • Recommend that the Equality and Human Rights Commission prepare a specific code of practice on reasonable adjustments to supplement existing codes. This will provide an appropriate balance between flexibility and clarity on how ‘reasonable’ cost is determined. The code will also set timescales for implementation of reasonable adjustments to end the long and distressing delays experienced by disabled workers. • Reinstate the Access to Elected Office Fund to enable disabled people to run for elected office. • Adopt a British Sign Language Act, giving BSL full legal recognition in law. We will work with employers, trade unions and public services to improve awareness of neurodiversity in the workplace and in society. In Scotland, the SNP has failed to deliver the housing needed to allow disabled people to lead dignified and independent lives. Individuals have reported feeling frustrated and demoralised by the housing system and the Equality and Human Rights Commission described the lack of accessible housing as a “hidden crisis”. A Scottish Labour government would commit to a target of 10% of new housing in Scotland to be built to-accessible home standards and work with local authorities to ensure they have enough funding for the housing adaptations that people need. ## LGBT+ Equality Labour has a proud history of standing shoulder to shoulder with LGBT+ people. We abolished Section 28, equalised the age of consent, and supported the legislation creating civil partnerships and equal marriage. It is unacceptable that trans people and non-binary people continue to face prejudice and discrimination every day. The Scottish Government is consulting over changes to the Gender Recognition Act and Scottish Labour will listen carefully to the submissions and debate as the legislation progresses. Labour will eliminate remaining areas of discrimination in law, ensuring that LGBT+ people can live in safety and dignity and take steps to safeguard LGBT+ rights inside or outside the EU, such as retaining and promoting the Human Rights Act. We will respond fast and firmly wherever LGBT+ people face violence or persecution internationally and appoint a dedicated global Ambassador to the Foreign Office on LGBT+ issues. In Scotland, Labour would deliver access to consistent sex education which considers LGBTI relationships and sexual health. We are fully committed to a strategy for dealing with homophobic, transphobic and biphobic bullying in our schools, and Scottish Labour would ensure that all teachers receive initial and ongoing training on the issues students face and how to address them. Likewise, we would ensure all frontline health and social care professionals receive ongoing training to understand and meet the needs of LGBTI patients and service users. Labour will work with organisations and charities already making the UK a more equal and fairer society and together we will build a country for the many. ## Migration **A Labour government will establish a humane immigration system and end the hostile environment that caused the Windrush scandal of British citizens being deported. Instead our system will be built on human rights and aimed at meeting the skills and labour shortages that exist in our economy and public services.** Our immigration system must allow us to recruit the people we need, and to welcome them and their families. Our work visa system must fill any skills or labour shortages that arise. The movement of people around the world has enriched our society, our economy and our culture. We will take decisive action to regulate the labour market to stop the undercutting of wages and exploitation of all workers, including migrant workers. It is the actions of bad bosses and successive Tory governments that have driven down wages and terms and conditions. Labour will ensure all workers have full and equal rights from day one, with a real living wage for all. The Tory policy of pursuing net migration targets has undermined our economy and our public services, refusing entry to essential key workers including nurses. It has created a hostile environment within our communities, encouraged the demonisation of migrants and enabled the callous use of 3 million residents as bargaining chips in our negotiations over EU withdrawal. Moreover, the Tories have not once met their own targets. Their migration policies are a complete and damaging failure, whichever way they are looked at. We will scrap the 2014 Immigration Act, introduced by the Tories with their Liberal Democrat coalition partners. We are for a levelling up of rights, not a race to the bottom. We will not tolerate a two-tier system for those entitled to be here. The Windrush scandal continues to create new victims. We will end its injustices and provide fair compensation to those who have unfairly suffered. We will end indefinite detention, review the alternatives to the inhumane conditions of detention centres, and close Yarl’s Wood and Brook House, from which immediate savings would contribute towards a fund of £20 million to support the survivors of modern slavery, trafficking and domestic violence. We will ensure justice for migrant domestic workers and restore the overseas domestic workers’ visa. If we remain in the EU, freedom of movement would continue. If we leave, that will be subject to negotiations, but we recognise the social and economic benefits that free movement has brought both in terms of EU citizens here and UK citizens abroad – and we will seek to protect those rights. In accordance with our values and domestic laws, we will uphold the right to a family life for British, EU and non-EU residents alike. We will end the deportation of family members of people entitled to be here and end the minimum income requirements which separate families. ## Refugees Refugees are victims of wars, environmental catastrophes, famine or persecution. This Tory government has failed its international legal obligations to refugees and to allow people to exercise their rights to seek asylum. A Labour government will uphold those rights and meet those obligations. We will work with others to resume rescue missions in the Mediterranean, co-operate with the French authorities to end to the horrific camps and establish safe and legal routes for genuine asylum seekers. Once here, refugees will have the right to work and will be treated humanely by government at all levels. ## Social Security **Labour holds social security in the same esteem as our health and education systems - it is there to help each of us in times of need. If someone falls on hard times – because they lose their job, get sick or lose a loved one – Labour will help them live with dignity and provide support to get them back on their feet.** But while Labour wants a society in which people care for one another, the Tories are trying to pitch us against each other. Under the Tories, the social security system has lost sight of its purpose. Poverty has become endemic, the glue that binds our society together has come unstuck and, in the words of the United Nations, the UK’s social safety net “has been deliberately removed and replaced with a harsh and uncaring ethos.” The cruelty and heartlessness of the Tories has made the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) a symbol of fear. When people feel the DWP is more about harassment than a helping hand, something has gone seriously wrong. Labour will completely change this culture, replacing the DWP on day one with a Department for Social Security, which will be there to help and support people, not punish and police them. We’ll put children at the heart of everything we do, developing a cross-governmental National Strategy for Childhood focusing on health, security, well-being and poverty. We will give effect to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. ## Universal Credit The Tories’ flagship social security programme, Universal Credit (UC), has been a catastrophe. It has pushed thousands of people into poverty, caused families to lose their homes and forced parents to visit foodbanks in order to feed their children. Labour will scrap UC. We will immediately stop moving people onto it and design an alternative system that treats people with dignity and respect. Our ambition in designing this system will be to end poverty by guaranteeing a minimum standard of living. We will start developing this system immediately. But we have learned the lessons from Tory failure: major policy change can’t be delivered overnight, especially when people’s lives depend on it. So we will also implement an emergency package of reforms to mitigate some of the worst features of UC while we develop our replacement system. We will end the five week wait by introducing an interim payment based on half an estimated monthly entitlement. We will immediately suspend the Tories’ vicious sanction regime and ensure that employment support is positive not punitive. We will stop 300,000 more children from falling into poverty by scrapping the benefit cap and the two child limit, so ending the immoral and outrageous “rape clause”. We will pay childcare costs upfront so that parents aren’t forced to turn down work or get into debt to pay for childcare. Labour will protect women in abusive relationships by splitting payments and paying the child element to the primary carer. We will make it easier for people to manage their living costs by introducing fortnightly payments and paying the housing element directly to landlords. The Tory’s “digital only” approach is excluding vulnerable people. Labour will end the digital barrier and offer telephone, face-to-face and outreach support. We will recruit 5,000 additional advisors to deliver this. Tory cuts are pushing people into rent arrears and leaving them at risk of homelessness. We will stop housing costs running away from benefits by scrapping the bedroom tax and increasing the Local Housing Allowance. The decision to scrap the “bedroom tax” across the UK would free up around £50 million a year in the Scottish budget. ## Disabled People Labour stands with and for disabled people. We will always challenge stigma and discrimination wherever it is found and support the right of disabled people to live independently and be treated with respect. The Tories’ rhetoric of ‘scroungers’ and ‘skivers’ has whipped up hatred of disabled people. Labour will never demonise disabled people or the unemployed. Labour follows the social model of disability – it is not people’s condition or impairment that disables them, but society’s failure to adapt to those conditions and impairments. We are committed to removing the barriers constructed by society and ensuring that disabled people can participate fully and equally in our society. The Tories have created a hostile environment for disabled people, who have borne the brunt of Tory cuts. The United Nations has said that the Tories have systematically and gravely violated disabled people’s rights by denying them the support they are entitled to. Labour will end this hostile environment. We will give effect to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into UK law and amend the Equality Act to reflect the social model of disability. We will stop the dehumanising Work Capability Assessments, which repeatedly and falsely find ill or disabled people fit to work, and make sure all assessments are done in-house. Social security is meant to help disabled people cope with the additional costs and disadvantages they face. But the Tories have cut back that support to inadequate levels. Time and again disabled people have had to fight through the courts to receive the support they are entitled to. Labour will make sure people who are ill and disabled receive the support they need to lead full, independent lives. We will: • Increase Employment and Support Allowance by £30 per week for those in the work-related activity group • Raise support for children with disabilities to the level of Child Tax Credits • Ensure that severely disabled people without a formal carer receive extra support to enable them to meet the extra costs they inevitably face. We will help disabled people who want to work by bringing back specialist employment advisors, introducing a government-backed Reasonable Adjustments Passport scheme to help people move between jobs more easily, and reviewing support for disabled people at work, including the Access to Work scheme. Scottish Labour has laid out a clear approach to disability benefits devolved to Scotland, based on dignity, fairness and respect. While the SNP has said they share this aspiration, existing evidence suggests their plan involves replicating much of the existing system. The Scottish Government promised a rights-based system, which would, at the very least, give people the same legal rights as they currently have under the reserved benefits system. These hard-won case-law rights are yet to be integrated and enshrined into Scots law. As a minimum, people in Scotland must have the same legal rights as those in the rest of the UK. We will put pressure on the government until they deliver this. Many unanswered questions remain, from the benefit names, indefinite awards, and how the daily living descriptors might change. 5 years on from the Smith Commission the “safe and secure” transition has barely started and disabled people deserve clarity about the future. **Further devolved social security** It was welcome when the SNP Government announced they would bring forward the income supplement for under sixes, following pressure from Scottish Labour and the third sector. However, while it represents a substantial investment, unanswered questions remain about the application process, why those aged between 16 and 18 will not receive the payment, how the government will maximise take-up and whether sufficient funding has been allocated for every child eligible. A Scottish Labour government at Holyrood would top up child benefit by £5 a week, which would equate to a total of 274,885 families’ incomes topped-up by at least £520 per year, and a further 288,075 families receiving an additional £260. Child benefit is not only the best way to reach those who really need it with a stable and reliable benefit, it is a means of keeping children out of poverty and improving children’s standard of living across Scotland. Scottish Labour welcomes the UK Labour Party’s plan to raise Carer’s Allowance to be in line with Job Seeker’s Allowance. A Scottish Labour government would consult on the wider reforms needed to support our carers in Scotland including a Minimum Income Guarantee. After years of real terms cuts to the Scottish Welfare Fund, a key means of protecting and supporting vulnerable people, Scottish Labour would increase its funding. **Pensions** People work hard for most of their lives and deserve a decent retirement free of financial stress and insecurity. Under the Tories, 400,000 pensioners have been pushed into poverty and a generation of women born in the 1950s have had their pension age changed without fair notification. This betrayal left millions of women with no time to make alternative plans – with sometimes devastating personal consequences. Labour recognises this injustice, and will work with these women to design a system of recompense for the losses and insecurity they have suffered. We will ensure that such an injustice can never happen again by legislating to prevent accrued rights to the state pension from being changed. The Tories have repeatedly raised the State Pension Age despite overseeing a decline in life expectancy. Labour will abandon the Tories’ plans to raise the State Pension Age, leaving it at 66. We will review retirement ages for physically arduous and stressful occupations, including shift workers, in the public and private sectors. We will maintain the ‘triple lock’ and guarantee the Winter Fuel Allowance, free TV licences and free bus passes as universal benefits. Thanks to automatic enrolment, which was introduced by the last Labour Government, record numbers of employees are now in workplace pension schemes. But too many people are still not saving enough for a comfortable retirement. We will stop people being auto-enrolled into rip-off schemes and seek to widen and expand access for more low income and self-employed workers. We will establish an independent Pensions’ Commission, modelled on the Low Pay Commission to recommend target levels for workplace pensions. We will create a single, comprehensive and publicly-run pensions dashboard that is fully transparent, including information about costs and charges. We will legislate to allow the CWU-Royal Mail agreement for a collective pension scheme to proceed and allow similar schemes. Labour has listened to the NUM and in government will end the injustice of the state taking 50% of the surplus in the mineworkers’ pension scheme and introduce new sharing arrangements so that 10% goes to government and 90% stays with scheme members. This new sharing arrangement will also apply to the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme. We will ensure the pensions of UK citizens living overseas rise in line with pensions in the UK. ## Housing **Everyone has the right to a decent, secure home. In 1945, Labour promised to “proceed with a housing programme with the maximum practical speed until every family in this island has a good standard of accommodation” In 2019, we renew that pledge. But too many people are being denied their right to a good home by our housing system that treats homes as financial assets rather than places to live.** Everyone knows someone affected by the housing crisis: younger people unable to buy a first home, renters trapped in damp flats, families stuck on council waiting lists, people who are homeless living and dying on our streets. The gap between the housing haves and have-nots is at the heart of the injustice in our country today. The SNP has failed to respond to this crisis with the ambition required. There are currently at least 130,000 people waiting for a social or council house, homeless applications have increased, and more low income families are living in the private rented sector as rents increase. Only Labour has a plan to provide everyone with a safe, warm and affordable home. We will act on every front to bring the cost of housing down and standards up, so that everyone has a decent, affordable place to call home. Scottish Labour supports greater publicly led development, to shift the balance of power away from major developers and landowners and back to communities. This will require not only significant capital investment but also legislative change to allow the public sector to acquire land at existing use value. Scottish Labour’s Housing Commission recently recommended the creation of a new ’Land and Communities Development Agency’ in Scotland. This new Agency would sit between the Scottish and local government. It would work with local authorities and other appropriate bodies to acquire, assemble remediate, service and co-develop derelict and vacant land in Scotland, make available serviced sites for affordable housing and drive forward the delivery of a new generation of planned, attractive, mixed tenure communities in Scotland. Scottish Labour would also upgrade our current housing stock. We would invest £6 billion from the UK’s National Transformation Fund to upgrade almost all of Scotland’s 2.6 million homes to the highest energy efficiency standards. This would reduce the average household energy bill by £417 per household per year by 2030, dramatically reduce fuel poverty and support 35,000 jobs. ## Council and Social Homes The only way to deliver on everyone’s right to a good home is to build publicly-funded social housing. Through the National Transformation Fund, Scottish Labour would provide an initial £10 billion investment to kickstart an ambitious social house-building programme in Scotland, building 12,000 eco-friendly social and council homes a year for 10 years. This will ensure that everyone in Scotland has the right to an affordable, well-insulated and permanent home. It would also support 50,000 jobs. This funding would allow Scottish Labour to return to pre-SNP subsidy levels for affordable house building. Local government and housing associations would receive two thirds of the funding required to build these homes. Reducing the need for social landlords to borrow to build, would lower social rents long term, reduce the cost of living for those on low incomes and minimise the risk of eviction. ## Home Ownership We don’t believe it’s fair that the housing options previous generations took for granted are now out of reach for so many people. And home ownership is becoming a driver of capital inequality in Scotland. We need to close the gulf emerging between young people who may never be able to own their own home or accumulate savings and those whose parents can afford to help them buy. However, too many young people are stuck in a cycle from which there seems to be no escape – they rent to save for a deposit to buy a house but rising rents mean they can’t afford to put much away at the end of the month. The Help to Buy scheme, established by the Coalition Tory - Lib Dem government and passed on to Scotland by the SNP, has directed funding towards those who don’t need it. Scottish Labour would scrap Help to Buy and replacing it with a more targeted scheme to help first time buyers on lower incomes. ## Private Renters Unpredictable private rent increases across Scotland risk pushing more families into poverty and homelessness. The SNP government claim to have provided a solution to rocketing rents in the form of Rent Pressure Zones but the scheme has been widely discredited. A report by Edinburgh City Council concluded that Rent Pressure Zones have not been designed in a way that will work effectively and have asked for a review of the policy. The Scottish Government must admit that Rent Pressure Zones are unworkable and that it’s time for a more meaningful intervention in the private rented sector to protect people from rising private sector rents. As part of our plans to improve private sector tenants’ rights, Scottish Labour has brought forward a Bill, known as the Mary Barbour Bill, which would put an annual cap on increases on private sector rents and give more power to tenants to appeal their rents. We would also legislate to bring energy efficiency standards in the private rented sector in line with the social sector. Scottish Labour supports a change in planning law to ensure that properties being used as short-term lets, which are not the owner’s sole residence, require planning permission. This would provide the basis for fair, locally-sensitive and evidence-based regulation. ## Homelessness No one should sleep without a roof over their head in one of the richest countries in the world. But under the Tories and the SNP, homelessness has increased. The systematic problems that lead to homelessness are not being tackled, for example, the number of homelessness applicants citing mental health or physical health for the reason why they failed to maintain accommodation has risen dramatically. Only Labour governments, committed to investing in our public services, will be able to tackle the root causes of homelessness. A UK Labour government will tackle the wider causes of homelessness, raising the Local Housing Allowance in line with the 30th percentile of local rents The Scottish Government’s commitment on rapid rehousing is welcome, but the local authorities tasked with delivering it are chronically underfunded. The government’s lack of action on homelessness prevention is equally disappointing. Local authorities, the NHS, Police Scotland and the Prison Service all have a key role to play in prevention and must have clearly defined duties, developed in partnership with government, and the funding to deliver them. ## The Final Say on Brexit **Labour will give the people the final say on Brexit. Within three months of coming to power, a Labour government will secure a sensible deal. And within six months, we will put that deal to a public vote alongside remain. A Labour government will implement whatever the people decide.** Only a Labour government will put this decision in the hands of the people to give you the final say. This will be a legally binding referendum and we will implement the people’s decision immediately. The Tories have failed for three years to get Brexit sorted, in a shambles of repeated delays and uncertainty. Whether people voted Leave or Remain in 2016, people and businesses are crying for politicians in Westminster to finally focus on the wider challenges we face. Labour rules out a no deal Brexit, and we will end the scandal of billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being wasted on no deal preparations. No deal has never been a viable option. It would do enormous harm to jobs, rights, security and to our NHS. Labour has led the campaign to stop a no deal Brexit. A majority Tory government would pose a renewed threat of the UK crashing out with no deal. Only a Labour government can prevent this. We will rip-up the deeply flawed deal negotiated by Boris Johnson. We opposed his deal precisely because it would do such harm to workers’ rights, environmental protections and to our manufacturing industry. Boris Johnson’s deal is even worse than Theresa May’s: it would leave the UK £70bn worse off by 2029, it would give the green light to deregulation undermining UK manufacturing, and it would leave our NHS at the mercy of a trade deal with Donald Trump. This sell-out deal is unacceptable to Labour. Labour will secure a new Brexit deal – one that protects jobs, rights and the environment, avoids a hard border in Northern Ireland and protects the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process. We will also ensure that there is no change in the status or sovereignty of Gibraltar. Our deal will be based on the principles we have set out over the last two years. It will include: • A permanent and comprehensive UK-wide customs union, which is vital to protect our manufacturing industry and allows the UK to benefit from joint UK-EU trade deals, and is backed by businesses and trade unions. • Close alignment with the Single Market – ensuring we have a strong future economic relationship with the EU that can support UK businesses • Dynamic alignment on workers’ rights, consumer rights and environmental protections so that UK standards keep pace across Europe as a minimum, allowing the UK to lead the way, not fall behind. • Continued participation in EU agencies and funding programmes, including in such vital areas of co-operation as the environment, scientific research and culture. • Clear commitments on future security arrangements, including access to the European Arrest Warrant and shared databases making people safer at home and abroad. Labour will secure a revised Withdrawal Agreement that provides legal protection for citizens’ rights, meets our international obligations – particularly with regard to the Good Friday Agreement – and ensures an appropriate transition period to allow businesses and citizens to adapt to any new arrangements. We will also secure robust and legally binding protections for workers’ rights, consumer standards and environmental protections, and ensure level playing field protections are maintained. Labour will never accept an outcome that puts rights and standards at risk. Once we have secured this new deal we will put it to a legally binding referendum alongside the option of remaining in the EU. This will take place within the first six months of a Labour government and Scottish Labour will campaign to remain in the EU. Labour is the only party that can heal the harmful divisions in our communities and address the devastation caused by ten years of austerity, ruthlessly imposed on society by the Tories and Lib Dems. While other parties have exacerbated polarisation, defining everyone by how they voted in the 2016 EU Referendum, Labour has consistently reached across this divide. Only Labour will deliver a final say referendum. Only Labour will offer the choice of remaining in the EU, or leaving with a sensible deal. This final say referendum will not be a re-run of 2016. It will be legally binding. Labour will implement the decision of the British people immediately. Labour will introduce legislation to facilitate this referendum and to provide legal certainty and stability following the result. We will introduce a Withdrawal Agreement and Referendum Bill, providing the legal basis to conduct and implement the outcome of the referendum. We will scrap the Brexit legislation currently proposed by the Tories and introduce new legislation that is in line with Labour’s priorities and principles to protect our economy, trade, jobs and rights. This will include new legislation to ensure support and certainty for UK farmers, our fishing industry and protection for our natural environment. Labour recognises the huge benefits of immigration to our country. Many British citizens have benefited from freedom of movement, which has given them the opportunity to study, work or retire abroad. Likewise our public services and our industry have benefited from skilled workers coming here. Labour believes that citizens’ rights should never have been used as a bargaining chip in the Brexit negotiations, and recognise the huge anxiety this has caused for the 3 million EU nationals living in the UK and the 1.2 million UK nationals who have made their home elsewhere in the EU. We will end the uncertainty created by the EU Settlement Scheme by granting EU nationals the automatic right to continue living and working in the UK. This new declaratory system will allow EU nationals the chance to register for proof of status if they wish but will mean they no longer have to apply to continue living and working in this country. This will help ensure reciprocal treatment for UK citizens living in the EU. It will also prevent a repeat of the shameful Windrush scandal and avoid unnecessarily criminalising hundreds of thousands of EU nationals. If in a referendum the British people decide to remain in the EU, this must not mean accepting the status quo. Labour will work with partners across Europe to make the case for radical reform of the EU – in particular to ensure that its collective strength is focused on tackling the climate emergency, tax evasion and ending austerity and inequality. The EU needs a new political direction and, if the people decide the UK should remain in the EU, Labour will lead the way to ensure that change. For too long a politically inflicted wave of austerity has damaged communities across The UK and across Europe. The most vulnerable parts in our society have suffered, while the super-rich continue to be rewarded by a system that allows them to thrive at the expense of the many. This must change. If the country decides to remain, a Labour government will take a different approach and strive to ensure that the EU works for people across our communities. The EU should focus on policies that value investment, protect public services and makes those who have the most pay their fair share. If people decide to leave, a Labour government will work constructively on vital issues of mutual interest and to the mutual benefit of the UK and EU. But we will leave. Most importantly, under a Labour government, you will get the final say on Brexit. ## A New Internationalism * A NEW INTERNATIONALISM * EFFECTIVE DIPLOMACY * DEFENCE AND SECURITY * INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY * AND SOCIAL JUSTICE **Labour will put human rights, international law and tackling climate change at the heart of our international policies, and use our global influence to end the ‘bomb first, talk later’ approach to security. Labour will always do what is needed to protect the security of people in the UK.** International peace and security will be a primary objective of a Labour government’s foreign policy. The UK deserves better than the Tories’ reckless approach to complex global challenges or the outsourcing of UK foreign policy to US President Donald Trump. Failed military interventions in countries like Libya have worsened security across North Africa, accelerating the refugee crisis. Our approach will be based on our values. Within the first year of government Labour will: • Introduce a War Powers Act to ensure that no Prime Minister can bypass parliament to commit to conventional military action. Unlike the Tories, we will implement every single recommendation of the Chilcot Inquiry. • Conduct an audit of the impact of The UK’s colonial legacies to understand our contribution to the dynamics of violence and insecurity across regions previously under British colonial rule. • Invest an additional £400 million in our diplomatic capacity to secure the UK’s role as a country that promotes peace, delivers ambitious global climate agreements and works through international organisations to secure political settlements to critical issues. ## Effective Diplomacy **Internationalism is at the core of the Labour movement. We recognise our responsibility to confront injustices we see today and to correct the injustices of the past.** We will: • Establish a judge-led inquiry into our country’s alleged complicity in rendition and torture, and the operation of secret courts • Issue a formal apology for the first Jallianwala Bagh massacre, and hold a public review into The UK’s role in the second Amritsar massacre • Allow the people of the Chagos Islands and their descendants the right to return from the lands from which they should never have been removed • Uphold the human rights of the people of West Papua and recognise the rights of the people of Western Sahara. We have a duty to stand up for the security and sovereignty of our overseas territories, including the Falklands, and for the rights of our citizens and dual-nationals abroad, and will continue fighting for justice on behalf of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other British nationals wrongly imprisoned or suffering mistreatment in captivity abroad. ## Human Rights Human rights and international humanitarian law are fundamental pillars of a secure global system. These principles are under threat. Some of the world’s most powerful states choose to sell arms to human rights-abusing states. Tory ministers, including Boris Johnson, have signed off well over £2 billion of arms sales to repressive regimes since June 2017. Around the world, human rights defenders and civil society activists remain vulnerable to attacks, often carried out with impunity. We will: • Immediately suspend the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen and to Israel for arms used in violation of the human rights of Palestinian civilians, and conduct a root-and-branch reform of our arms exports regime so ministers can never again turn a blind eye to British-made weapons being used to target innocent civilians. • Reform the international rules-based order to secure justice and accountability for breaches of human rights and international law, such as the bombing of hospitals in Syria, the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip, and the use of rape as a weapon of war against the Rohingya community in Myanmar and the indiscriminate bombardment of civilians in Yemen. • Appoint human rights advisers to work across the Foreign Office and government to prioritise a coordinated approach to human rights. • Advocate for human rights at every bilateral diplomatic meeting **Climate Diplomacy** There is no greater injustice today than countries in the Global South paying the price for a climate crisis they did not cause. Yet some world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, champion a climate denial agenda. The UK’s climate change diplomacy was respected internationally, playing an important role in securing the Paris Agreement, following the leading role the UK played in securing the Kyoto Agreement. However, Boris Johnson - who has described global warming as a “primitive fear… without foundation” – has overseen a 60% cut in the UK’s global network of climate experts. Only Labour can rebuild the UK’s leadership on the most serious threat to our shared humanity. We will: • Rebuild our climate expertise within the Foreign Office, putting climate diplomacy at the heart of our foreign policy. • Use our influence at the UN, EU, G7, G20, World Bank and other global institutions to promote policies to tackle the climate emergency. • Use our diplomatic expertise to negotiate and deliver more ambitious global targets to deal with the climate emergency, starting with COP 26 in Glasgow next year. ## Prioritising Conflict Prevention and Building Peace The Tories have failed to play a constructive role in resolving the world’s most pressing humanitarian crises, including in Kashmir, Yemen and Myanmar, and the escalation of tensions with Iran. The treatment of the Kurdish people in Syria, including by Turkey, and the Uighurs in China has been meet with total inaction and apathy by the UK government. In some cases, they set aside regard for international law, including refusing to criticise Crown Prince Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Labour is committed to a comprehensive peace in the Middle East based on a two-state solution – a secure Israel alongside a secure and viable state of Palestine. There can be no military solution to this conflict, which must be settled on the basis of justice and international law. All sides must avoid taking action that would make peace harder to achieve. That means both an end to the blockade, occupation and settlements, and an end to rocket and terror attacks. Labour will continue to press for an immediate return to meaningful negotiations leading to a diplomatic resolution. A Labour government will immediately recognise the state of Palestine. Labour will take all lawful action necessary to counter and confront all forms of terrorism, and we will advocate a long-term multinational political strategy, led by regional actors, to tackle the spread of extremism. We believe effective diplomacy can address the drivers of conflict and insecurity. We will: • Build support for UN reform, including assessing and developing democratisation initiatives, and improving the engagement of the General Assembly in decision-making to ensure its institutions are more effective at achieving peace. • Prioritise our responsibility to prevent conflict by investing in local capacities for peacebuilding in areas of conflict – advocating for political, multilateral strategies for peace. • Act immediately to urge negotiations towards a political resolution to conflict wherever it arises, including in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. ## Defence and Security **The primary duty of government is to guarantee the security of people in the UK. Labour’s defence policy will be strategic and evidence-led. Our security at home is made stronger when the security of others elsewhere is guaranteed too.** An incoming Labour government will undertake a Strategic Defence and Security Review to assess the security challenges facing The UK, including new forms of cyber and remote warfare. This review will also take account of the climate emergency, and associated threats of resource competition, involuntary migration and violent conflict Under the Tories: • Boris Johnson refuses to publish the report into possible foreign interference by Russia in UK democracy • Trained Army Personnel have been cut from 102,000 to just over 74,000 • Armed forces and their families have been forced to live in sub-standard accommodation. • Failing outsourced contracts have not been terminated. • Our Armed Forces personnel received below inflation pay rises for seven years The security challenges we face know no borders. Labour will increase funding for UN peacekeeping operations to £100 million. We will maintain our commitment to NATO and our close relationship with our European partners, and we will use our influence at the United Nations to support peace and security worldwide. Defence is a reserved issue and UK Labour continues to support the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent. Labour will also actively lead multilateral efforts under our obligations Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to create a nuclear-free world. Labour’s commitment to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence will guarantee that our armed forces are versatile and capable of fulfilling the full range of roles and obligations. We will scrap the public sector pay cap, which resulted in a real terms pay cut for the starting salary of an army private, ensure decent housing for forces and their families, and guarantee better access for all Forces children to good quality local schools. We will consult on creating a representative body for the armed forces, akin to the Police Federation. Labour will improve opportunities for veterans through access to lifelong learning and training, housing and mental and physical health services, and seek greater consistency in the implementation of the Armed Forces Covenant by public authorities. We will pay a lump-sum of £50,000 to each surviving British nuclear test veteran to support them and their families with the health conditions they have suffered as a result of exposure to radiation. We will also ensure that Black and Asian soldiers who fought in The UK’s colonial armies receive a full apology and explore ways to compensate them for the discriminatory demob payments they received compared to their white counterparts serving at the same rank in the same regiments. The UK defence industry is world-leading and Labour will continue to work with manufacturers, unions and export partners in line with Labours foreign policy to support innovation in this sector to ensure it maintains its highly skilled workforce and world class apprenticeship programme. We are committed to procurement that supports UK defence manufacturing including our aerospace and shipbuilding, alongside a vibrant supply chain that includes the British steel industry and other component manufacturing companies providing good jobs throughout supply chains. Labour will publish a Defence Industrial Strategy White Paper, including a National Shipbuilding Strategy, that keeps all Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary shipbuilding contracts in the UK, to secure a long-term future for the industry and its workers. Reducing our carbon footprint can only happen with ambitious emissions reduction targets at the MoD, one of government’s biggest energy users. So as part of our Green Industrial Revolution, we will create a Climate Change Sustainability Committee within the department to review the feasibility of increasing the use of sustainable energy in defence, and publish a strategy to accelerate the safe and sustainable recycling of our old nuclear submarines ## International Solidarity and Social Justice **The scale of the challenges facing our world are enormous. Conflict, climate change and a global economy rigged in favour of a tiny elite are driving instability and inequality across the world. A bold international development policy driven by social justice has never been more needed.** ## Justice Labour will use the UK’s influence within the World Bank, IMF and WTO to transform the rules of the global economy so they work for the many. We recognise the need to address historic injustices and will reset our relationships with countries in the Global South based on principles of redistribution and equality, not outdated notions of charity or imperialist rule. Unlike the Tories, Labour is fully committed to a standalone Department for International Development (DfID), with an aid budget of at least 0.7% of gross national income. We will introduce the reduction of inequality as a goal for all aid spending alongside existing poverty reduction and gender equality goals. For the Tories, too often humanitarian aid is undermined by their disastrous foreign policy, as in Yemen. Under Labour, we will ensure policy coherence across our international facing departments. Under Labour, DFID will continue to respond to the world’s biggest crises and will ensure humanitarian aid is provided according to need, not whether the UK has commercial or other interests in the country. DfID will assume a strong position in cross-government decision making, including a permanent seat on the Export Control Joint Unit responsible for licensing arms exports. Our international programme will be based on human rights and gender equality. We will: • Uphold basic rights to education, health and clean water by establishing a new Unit for Public Services within DfID, which will include increasing direct budgetary support to governments so they can build sustainable services for their citizens. • Promote fairer international tax rules and help countries in the Global South build progressive tax systems to finance essential public services. • Support trade unions internationally in their efforts to promote collective bargaining for better pay and conditions, and include binding social chapters in trade agreements to safeguard workers’ rights. • Support ongoing UN efforts to introduce a binding international treaty on business and human rights, and make companies legally accountable for failing to prevent human rights abuse or environmental damage in their operations and supply chains, including criminal liability in the most serious cases. • Implement a gender transformative approach across all our international work, including tripling funding for grassroots women’s organisations and establishing an independent ombudsman to tackle abuse in the development sector. Scottish Labour is proud of our international development achievements, including setting up our partnership with Malawi and introducing the Scottish Government’s International Development Fund – the SNP’s work on international development builds on the successes of the last Scottish Labour government. We fully support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed globally to eradicate poverty and protect the environment. We will work with local authorities and third sector organisations to welcome and support refugees and ensure that the UK takes a humane approach to welcoming those fleeing conflict and persecution. Labour believes in climate justice. Wealthy countries like the UK bear the greatest responsibility for the climate emergency. Countries in the Global South that have done the least to cause climate change are already facing the worst impacts, such as rising sea levels, more frequent hurricanes and greater food insecurity. We have a duty to right this wrong. We will: • Provide a top-up of new and additional spending on international climate finance to bring the total to £4 billion a year, and also support international calls for compensation to those nations already suffering loss and damage. • Stop all aid spending on fossil fuel production overseas, redirecting it towards clean, renewable energy for all. • End all UK Export Finance support to fossil fuel projects, and reject any trade deals that conflict with our climate principles. • Undertake a root-and-branch reform of CDC Group plc (DfID’s principal vehicle for encouraging private sector investment in developing countries), transforming it into a green development bank mandated to fight poverty, inequality and climate change. Labour respects the crucial role played by small-scale farmers the world over in guaranteeing people the right to food. We will: • Establish an aid-funded Food Sovereignty Fund to enable small-scale farmers in the Global South to gain access to land, seeds and finance, and uphold indigenous peoples’ right to land. • Support sustainable local food and agriculture markets in the fight against climate change. Labour believes human rights should drive our trade policy. We will: • Implement UK arms export controls to the highest standard, putting an end to exports where they might be used in violation of human rights or international humanitarian law. • Ensure government procurement contracts are not granted to companies that are complicit in serious human rights abuses, and require all UK trade agreements to be consistent with international humanitarian law. • Introduce legislation to ensure transparency and parliamentary scrutiny of trade and investment agreements. • Reject any trade agreements that undermine labour standards or environmental protections, and rule out UK Export Finance support to companies engaged in bribery or corruption. Labour recognises the right to essential medicines as an integral part of the right to health. We will: • Promote fairer international patent regimes that do not prevent countries from accessing essential medicines and support efforts to increase the transparency of medicines pricing so governments can negotiate fair prices. • In the long term, ensure that all medicines developed with the support of UK taxpayer money are accessible to people in the Global South. ## Democracy and Accountability * CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM IN SCOTLAND * STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY ## Constitutional Reform in Scotland **This manifesto demonstrates the transformational change that a UK Labour government can make. It is a transformational change that the SNP simply cannot deliver. The Scottish Tories claim to defend the UK, but they know that Boris Johnson will abandon Scotland, as he did Northern Ireland in his Brexit deal, if it suits his purpose.** What Scotland needs is a government that tackles the climate emergency, ends austerity and cuts and sorts Brexit. That’s what the Scottish people need and that’s what we will be focusing on. That’s why in the early years of a UK Labour government will not agree to a section 30 order request if it comes from the Scottish Government. In contrast, Scottish Labour would shift power closer to the people, decentralising and democratising the state. We will extend democracy not just at the ballot box, but in every workplace and every community. In the 2014 independence referendum Scottish Labour campaigned for Scotland to remain in the UK. However, neither the status quo nor the SNP’s ‘Growth Commission’ prescription for managed decline provide what Scotland needs. Radical reform is key to our positive case for remaining part of the UK. In 2021 the Fiscal Framework is due to be reviewed. The current Framework negotiated by the SNP in 2016 is a bad deal for Scotland with the potential for a gaping hole in our budget. So Scottish Labour would propose an overhaul of the Block Grant Adjustment mechanism and a review of the wider Fiscal Framework so that a floor is provided and so that the adjustment on social security is not downwards - but upwards - according to Scotland’s needs. Although Holyrood now has borrowing powers, we want to extend these so that we have powers fit for a Parliament. We are proposing that the Scottish Government should be able to borrow and issue bonds for both resource and capital spending without restriction. This will enable us to end the model of private control for funding public services. A new Scotland Act under Labour will provide for the devolution of employment law, ensuring workers’ rights never fall below the UK minimum. Labour will also consider how intergovernmental and inter-parliamentary relations work inside the UK. The Brexit process has shown the current haphazard arrangements are unfit for purpose. They are both hierarchical and unbalanced. That is why we are proposing the abolition of the House of Lords and its replacement with an elected second chamber: a Senate of the Nations and Regions that could begin the process of reshaping our political system. A federal system could be built on a principle of co-determination, of shared powers based on partnership, not hierarchy. It would allow both subsidiarity and solidarity. Based on a charter of rights with minimum standards below which no part of the UK could fall. ## Strengthening Democracy **For many people, politics doesn’t work. The Westminster bubble is a world away from their daily lives. The Labour Party was founded to give working-class people a voice in politics.** We want our political institutions to be connected fully to the wider electorate, and will take urgent steps to refresh our democracy. The time has come for the real changes that a Labour government will bring. We will act immediately to end the hereditary principle in the House of Lords, and work to abolish the House of Lords in favour of Labour’s preferred option of an elected Senate of the Nations and Regions, but we also believe that the people must be central to historic political changes. The renewal of our UK Parliament will be subject to recommendations made by a UK-wide Constitutional Convention, led by a citizens’ assembly. This Convention will answer crucial questions on how power is distributed in the UK today, how nations and regions can best relate to each other and how a Labour government can best put power in the hands of the people. Only a Labour government will safeguard the future of a devolved UK, reforming the way in which it works to make it fit for the future. The UK is one of the most centralised countries in Europe. Labour will decentralise decision-making and strengthen local democracy. Our democratic revolution will also extend to elections. A Labour government will repeal the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011, which has stifled democracy and propped up weak governments. We will maintain 650 constituencies and respond objectively to future, independent boundary reviews. We will oversee the largest extension of the franchise in generations, reducing the voting age to 16, give full voting rights to all UK residents, making sure everyone who is entitled to vote can do so by introducing a system of automatic voter registration, and abandon Tory plans to introduce voter ID which has been shown to harm democratic rights. **Tackling vested interests** Labour will change how politics is funded, banning donations from tax avoiders and tax evaders, and closing loopholes that allow the use of shell companies to funnel dark money into politics. We will free the voices of civil society by repealing the Lobbying Act 2014 and overhauling the rules that govern corporate lobbying. We will introduce a lobbying register covering both in-house lobbyists and think-tanks and extending to contacts made with all senior government employees, not just ministers. In the Scottish Parliament, we argued that the Lobbying Act (Scotland) 2016 was an inadequate response to issues raised by us in a Members Bill. We will therefore evaluate the working of the legislation before proposing further changes to the law. We’ll also increase the financial penalties available to the Electoral Commission and require imprints for digital political adverts. We will stop MPs from taking paid second jobs, with limited exemptions to maintain professional registrations like nursing. We will replace ACOBA, the business appointments committee, with a sufficiently resourced and empowered new body, governed by a diverse and representative board and established in law. We will also overhaul the system of ministerial appointments to public office. Scottish Labour will bring forward legislation to stop MSPs taking second jobs. Scottish Labour supports greater transparency by extending Freedom of Information rules to cover private providers of public services, we will clamp down on those who seek to avoid FOI law and set new standards of consistent disclosure practice. Labour will also end the six-month time-limit in which the UK Information Commissioner can prosecute the deliberate destruction of public records.