15 bills outlined as MSPs return

Sep 2 2012

Alex Salmond will outline plans for 15 new bills when MSPs return to Holyrood next week.

The Scottish Parliament returns from its summer break on Tuesday, the same day that the First Minister will announce the Scottish Government's legislative programme.

Plans for a vote on Scottish independence will be at the heart of the programme, with a Referendum Bill to be introduced in this parliamentary session.

It is expected the legislative programme for the coming year will also include a bill on gay marriage after Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced recently the Government intended to change the law to allow same-sex couples to wed. In addition, there will be a Children's Bill which will increase free childcare for youngsters.

The move comes after Mr Salmond pledged to the SNP conference this year that Scotland would have the best package of free nursery education in the UK, with a legal guarantee of more than 600 hours of free nursery education for every three and four-year-old, as well as for two-year-olds who are in care.

A spokesman for Bruce Crawford, the Parliamentary Business and Government Strategy Secretary, said the legislative programme was being unveiled at a time when the SNP had "even higher" poll ratings that at the time of last year's landslide election victory.

A July opinion poll put support for the Nationalists in the constituency section of the Holyrood vote at 47% - up from 45% at the time of the Holyrood election.

Mr Crawford's spokesman said: "We have led the policy and political agenda over the summer and will continue to do so when Parliament returns on Tuesday - with a programme for government which reflects the ambitions and priorities of the people, and reflects all areas of Scotland's national life.

"The Social Attitudes Survey found that over 71% of people trust the Scottish Government to act in Scotland's best interests, up from 61% in 2010 - and compared to just 18% who trust the UK Government."

The spokesman added: "In the areas where the Scottish Parliament already has responsibility, we are delivering for Scotland - with 1,000 extra police officers, the council-tax freeze, a record number of modern apprenticeships and the best performance anywhere in the UK for securing inward investment jobs. We are extremely confident that we will win the trust of the people for the positive case that Scotland can be well governed in all areas, by achieving the powers of independence in the autumn 2014 referendum."