How SNP members are making policy – and changing Scotland
by The diversity and talent of our mass membership has helped shape the party we are today.
From the Citizen’s Basic Income to the Child Poverty Act, here are five examples of policies decided by our grassroots that we’re taking forward in government.
Scottish National Investment Bank
At our Spring Campaign Conference last year, a resolution was passed to examine the feasibility of creating a Scottish National Investment Bank.
Just five months later, we announced in the Programme for Government that a National Investment Bank will be established, and the SNP Scottish Government will invest £340 million over the first two years of its operation.
The Bank will work for the benefit of the people of Scotland, and provide businesses with the long-term investment they need to grow and to support our overall economic strategy.
Access to sanitary products
A resolution on tackling period poverty was passed at our National Council in Spring 2016. The SNP believe it is unacceptable that any woman or girl in Scotland should be unable to access sanitary products due to ‘period poverty’, where they cannot afford to buy these essential products. We want to make sanitary products easily accessible to those who need them, without stigma.
From August 2018, we will provide free access to sanitary products in schools, colleges and universities. We will also consider further action to ensure those on low incomes, but not in education, are assisted in light of the findings of the Aberdeen pilot.
Citizen’s Income
A citizen’s basic income is a policy discussed widely across the world. A resolution was passed at our Spring Campaign Conference in 2016, to monitor and investigate whether a citizen’s basic income could be introduced in Scotland.
We believe that bold and imaginative projects like this deserve support, however, we recognise that the concept is currently untested. As such, the Scottish Government are funding research into the feasibility of a citizen’s basic income scheme.
Voting franchise
A resolution on extending the voting franchise in Scotland was passed at our Spring Campaign Conference in 2017.
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring access to democratic participation for all citizens, and have now launched a consultation on Electoral Reform and are proposing to extend the opportunity to vote to all those who are legally resident in Scotland.
It seems only fair that those who have the right to live here, whether from EU countries or elsewhere, have the right to vote. You can find more information on the consultation here.
Child Poverty Act
At our Annual Conference in 2016, a resolution was passed to introduce a Child Poverty Act. The resolution urged the SNP Scottish Government to set out framework for the prevention, reduction and eradication of child poverty across Scotland.
Last year, we passed a Child Poverty Bill in the Scottish Parliament to introduce income based child poverty targets. This will make Scotland the only UK nation to have child poverty targets set out in law, after the Tory government scrapped targets for the whole of the UK.