How SNP members are making policy – and changing Scotland

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 that a National Investment Bank would be established with £340 million investment 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.

In the coming year we will introduce legislation to underpin the Scottish National Investment Bank and take forward a package of measures to increase the export of Scotland’s innovations and products to the rest of the world.

The Scottish National Investment Bank Bill will pave the way for the Bank to become operational in 2020.

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.

This year, we introduced a scheme to make free sanitary products available in schools colleges and universities – making Scotland the first country in the world to do so. And following a successful pilot in Aberdeen, a new £500,000 scheme will help ensure people from low income households can access free sanitary products. The scheme will aim to reach 18,800 women across Scotland.

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 following consultation, will now bring forward an Electoral Franchise Bill to give fair access to voting rights for all those who have a legal right to live in Scotland.

This will mean that citizens of all countries will be treated in the same way for elections to the Scottish Parliament and local government.

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.