What has John Swinney promised Scotland in his annual spending plans?

John Swinney has presented his government's spending plans for the coming year, which will focus on the fight against child poverty.

Presenting his first government programme as party leader, he warned that Holyrood was facing “some of its toughest tests” in 25 years in the face of budget cuts.

His speech to MPs comes just a day after his finance minister announced £500 million in cuts, including to the health budget.

Shona Robison blamed Westminster for not providing enough money to Holyrood, although opposition parties pointed to the independent Scottish Fiscal Commission, which said most budget cuts were due to decisions made by the Scottish Government itself.

Despite the drastic spending cuts, Swinney said he remains committed to fighting child poverty and investing in child care services.

“Our aim is to lift every child in Scotland living in poverty out of that poverty, so we need to do more,” he said.

In this context, the First Minister stressed the need to provide a “system of support for the whole family”. She added that it must be “easily accessible, well connected and responsive to the needs of families”.

He added: “Over the coming year, we will work with our partners to enable greater flexibility on the ground so that services can be more easily tailored to the needs of the families they support.”

He said the Scottish Government would “consider where greater investment is needed”.

However, he said: “The main aim of our approach will be to carry out a profound reform of the work of public services in order to provide comprehensive support for the whole family across the country.”

What did he announce?

Not everything Swinney announced on Wednesday was new. Some measures and funding were already underway and the finance minister wanted to confirm that they would continue next year.

The biggest investment was the announcement that £1 billion a year would continue to be spent on affordable childcare.

The next big announcement was about housing: £600 million was invested in affordable housing, including £40 million to make existing homes affordable.

£100 million will also be used to build 2,800 mid-range rental homes.

As Swinney announced, Creative Scotland will reopen its Open Fund after previously cutting the funding organisation's budget.

The First Minister has faced fierce criticism from artists such as Lewis Capaldi and Paolo Nutini for her decision to scrap the fund.

He also announced a comprehensive change to the ministerial code that could make investigations against ministers easier.

This announcement followed the row over Michael Matheson's iPad spending last year, which ultimately led to the Health Secretary's resignation.

Independent advisers can now launch investigations into the conduct of ministers, rather than requiring the First Minister to order an inquiry.

“I want my government to set the highest standards of decency and integrity,” he said.

“I want trust to be at the heart of our relationship with the Scottish people.”

The Finance Minister said he wanted to encourage investment in Scotland while ensuring the Government achieves its net zero targets.

He announced £500 million of investment in offshore wind, which he said would be used to generate £1.5 billion of private investment.

At the same time, two new investment zones and two green free ports will be created.

“A list of empty platitudes from an SNP government that lacks neither ideas nor money”

Douglas Ross said the government programme showed that the SNP had run out of ideas.

The outgoing leader of the Scottish Conservatives criticised Wednesday's announcement as “a list of empty platitudes from an SNP government that is short of ideas and money”.

“After 17 years of SNP incompetence, Scotland's finances and public services are in a massive mess,” he said.

“The result of this could be seen in John Swinney's speech, which was nothing more than a series of empty platitudes from an SNP government that has neither ideas nor money at its disposal.

“The programme for government is desperately lacking firm commitments because the SNP's own mismanagement – in the form of wasteful government spending and a high-tax, low-growth economy – has forced it to impose brutal spending cuts to plug a huge financial black hole.”

Anas Sarwar, leader of the Scottish Labour Party, said Swinney's spending plans showed he had “no vision, no strategy and no plan” for the country.

He said: “At a time when our country needs change, the SNP has given us more of the same – the same band-aid approach, the same warmed-over announcements and the same level of denial from the third First Minister in three years.

“Scotland needed a programme of government that recognised the scale of the challenges facing our country – stagnant growth, record-long NHS waiting lists, falling education standards, rising drug deaths and housing shortages.

“But instead we have an SNP government with no vision, no strategy and no plan.

“It is becoming clearer every day that Scotland needs change.”

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