Political Comparison Made Easy

We believe that, as it stands, the education system fails to engage many young people who are unsuited to academic study or who would rather pursue a skilled trade. This is damaging to the Scottish economy and has created a skills shortage that frustrates householders and business people. We will encourage schools to introduce a more flexible curriculum structure which allows pupils to select either an academically-focussed path from S2 onwards or a more vocationally-focused path and we will work with SQA to ensure there is an examination system which reflects this. Pupils should be free to leave school at age 14 provided they engage in a monitored apprenticeship or a full-time vocational or technical training programme which can provide them with the necessary skills for the world of work.

Please see page 14 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 11/04/11 (12:51am) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

HELPING CARERS AND THE VULNERABLE

We will merge health and social care budgets, placing social care under the control of the NHS. This will remove the incentive to use hospital beds when social care would be a more appropriate (and less costly) alternative. The money saved will be retained in the health and social care budget, leaving us better placed to meet future demand for social care.

We value the contribution made by carers across Scotland and we want to make progress in implementing the National Carers' Strategy to improve services for carers and will provide additional respite care. The integration of social care and NHS services will help identify those in need of extra assistance to care for their loved ones. We will work with the voluntary sector, local authorities and the NHS to improve services for carers.

Please see page 23 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 08/04/11 (12:04am) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

REFORMING OUR LEGAL SYSTEM

The Scottish Conservatives remain the party of vigorous action against crime. We have always stood for the protection of the citizen and the defence of the rule of law. We are proud that during the last four years we have been instrumental in delivering 1,000 extra police officers and a new strategy to tackle drug addiction in Scotland. However, crime remains a real concern for many people in Scotland today. The challenge for the next five years is to step up the fight against lawlessness and violence, so that our citizens can live free from fear.

We must tackle crime at its roots. Too many offences are carried out to feed a drug habit or are connected to alcohol. Unless we adequately address these issues, we will not break the cycle of re-offending. We must also ensure that children are adequately supported when a parent is sent to prison so that they do not get sucked into the culture of criminality.

We must ensure that the sentence fits the crime. A long prison sentence will remain appropriate for dangerous criminals, and fines and a tougher regime for punishment outside prison available as an alternative for less serious crime.

Victims of crime are too often forgotten about and we want to give them a strong voice at the heart of the criminal justice system. Further, local communities should have a much greater say over how decisions are made about their local policing priorities.

We must restore public confidence in our justice system. So we will re-introduce prison sentences of less than three months, so that custody can be used instead of community service where appropriate. However, we will also offer tougher community sentences that the courts and the public have confidence in: offenders will carry out meaningful jobs like litter picking, snow shovelling and beach cleaning, wearing a high-visibility uniform.

Now that such sentences will be available, the case for community courts becomes even stronger. We will pilot a community court in Glasgow.

Knife crime is a problem which blights too many communities across Scotland. The outgoing SNP Government has failed to take any action to address the concerns of the victims of knife crime or deter those who want to carry a knife. This needs to change. We will start by holding a nationwide knife amnesty to remove as many knives from the streets of Scotland as possible. As well as giving back to courts their full sentencing powers including short term sentences, we will end automatic early release so that more offenders are actually spending more of their sentence behind bars being rehabilitated and punished. The public expect knife carriers to go to jail and we, whilst recognising the sentencing discretion of the courts, will ensure that our reforms reflect this.

We will channel an element of funds confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 directly to charities and support groups that help the victims of crime. We will also create high-profile, Scotland-wide projects on which a significant number of those on community service can be employed, ensuring that community service is hard work for those sentenced to it, and consolidating the work of many of those involved in it into a benefit that is demonstrable to the Scottish public as a whole.

We will reform legal aid, in particular the scope of civil legal aid.

We will encourage better partnership working between the different agencies to ensure that anti-social behaviour is tackled swiftly and effectively. In order to tackle anti-social behaviour in some residential areas, we will amend the Land Reform Act (Scotland) Act 2003 to remove urban access lanes from its scope. We will also legislate to tackle the problem of high hedges where no agreement can be reached between neighbours.

REFORMING OUR PRISON AND REHABILITATION SERVICES

We are committed to the new Inverclyde, Highland and Grampian prisons and we will redevelop older parts of the prison estate when economic conditions permit in order to make them more focussed on rehabilitation.

We need to revolutionise the rehabilitation culture in our prisons.

We will move responsibility for the operation of community sentences from social work departments in local authorities to a new Scottish Prison and Rehabilitation Service (SPRS) to enable this change of culture. We recognise that for too long prisons have failed to properly rehabilitate criminals which is why the re-offending rate in Scotland is so high.

We will hold be a national review of all rehabilitation schemes currently offered to prisoners whilst in prisons and following release with a view to determining those that work and those that don't. We will guarantee that all prisoners get meaningful and constructive rehabilitation opportunities, irrespective of the type and length of their sentences. The new unified Scottish Prison and Rehabilitation Service will also run community-based sentences and this will help us make them more rehabilitative too. We will also ensure access to proper rehabilitation after sentences, which is extremely patchy at present.

We will create an official portal, controlled by the new Scottish Prison and Rehabilitation Service, through which community groups can "bid" for community service participants or even prisoners to undertake specific work. Those serving the sentence would all be monitored. It depends on an assessment of individuals and their records, but in most cases the groups benefiting from the work would not administer the offenders on their own, rather there will be supervision in place by employees of the SPRS.

We will introduce compulsory drugs tests for all inmates on arrival and departure from prison. We will extend drugs free wings in prisons and implement the national drugs strategy in every prison. In prison and outside, we will institute a national review on the implementation of the national drugs strategy.

REFORMING THE POLICE

Scottish Conservatives were responsible for delivering 1,000 additional Police Officers in Scotland over the last four years as a result of our budget negotiations, and we are committed to maintaining Police numbers over the next Parliament. In order to ensure we can achieve this at a time when the public sector has to make savings, we will merge Scotland's eight police forces into one.

We are committed to local policing and local accountability, so we will replace Police Boards with elected local Police Commissioners, each covering a distinct local area. Individually, police commissioners will hold local police to account such as by setting the local area's target for crime reduction. Police commissioners will not be involved in police operational issues. They would also work with the new sentencing and rehabilitation service. Collectively, they would provide strategic direction throughout Scotland, sharing best practice. They would be elected at local elections and share terms of office with councillors.

Giving people democratic control of the police is a huge step forward, but it is not enough. We need to give local people the information and direct powers they need to challenge their neighbourhood police teams to cut crime. So we will oblige the police to publish very detailed local crime data statistics every month, including crime maps, and require police teams to have regular neighbourhood beat meetings so they know what people's priorities are.

Please see pages 18-21 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 11/04/11 (2:24pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

ENHANCING SCOTLAND'S CULTURE AND INTERNATIONAL IMPACT

We will preserve free entry to national museums and galleries. To help Government funded Culture, Heritage and Sport bodies secure additional revenue, we will establish a new fund to allow them to finance expenditure which will lead to additional income in the future.

A wide range of initiatives will be supported, from encouraging philanthropic contributions to growing existing income streams and developing new ones.

We remain committed to the promotion of the Gaelic language and culture. Having fought hard to move BBC Alba on to freeview, we will allow, within our new schools model, the creation of new Gaelic schools where there is local demand.

Conservatives protected the international aid budget at UK level, because we are committed to playing a full part in international development, whatever the fiscal problems we have inherited at home. Scotland too has a proud record of overseas assistance, especially in Malawi, so we will protect the devolved international aid budget for the lifetime of the Parliament.

Please see page 27 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 11/04/11 (5:04pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

GROWING THE ECONOMY AND CREATING JOBS

With an economy heavily dependent on the financial services and public sectors, Scotland more than anywhere else has suffered from, and is experiencing the lasting effects of, the failure of the financial regulatory regime created by the last Labour Government at Westminster and the problems stored up by its overspending. Worse, Scottish businesses and jobs have been hit severely by the recession, which owing to Labour's failure to support business and address welfare dependency, lasted longer in the UK than anywhere else in the G20.

The outgoing SNP Government at Holyrood has taken some positive steps, following Scottish Conservative pressure, to encourage growth and jobs. However, it has not delivered fully on its pro-business rhetoric and it has failed to see the need to take some tough, "big picture" decisions, such as the need to call time on unsustainable borrowing and rebalance our economy from the public to the private sector.

With the help of the Conservatives in coalition at Westminster, we are confident that Scotland can make these necessary adjustments successfully, and will emerge as a more prosperous nation as a result, with a people whose talents are used more fully, and an entrepreneurial heritage that is brought to life once again.

The new UK Government has done its part to help turn the Scottish economy around. Scottish businesses will save around £280m from the changes we are introducing to National Insurance and up to 59,000 Scottish businesses will benefit from our NI payment holiday for new businesses. We are cutting corporation tax to the lowest rate of any major Western economy, one of the lowest rates in the G20, and the lowest rate Scotland has ever known. While Labour left half a million Scots stuck on out-of-work benefits, we are reforming welfare and are making work pay.

We have also shown our potential to deliver at Holyrood. We have consistently prioritised the promotion of private sector growth in our contributions to the Budget process. In successive Budgets, we have used our position holding the balance of power to force and then consolidate accelerated cuts in businesses rates for tens of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses. And in the most recent Budget, we secured £26m of stimulus for business, comprising £16m of help for first time buyers and getting the housing market moving, leading to 5,500 jobs for Scotland's construction industry and £10m for business start ups, job creation and exporting which will create up to 5,000 jobs.

Please see pages 2 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 11/04/11 (5:28pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

REFORMING OUR SCHOOLS

Educational standards will only improve across the board if parents have a greater say in choosing a school and if there are more incentives and freedoms to change poorly performing schools into good schools. Likewise, not all children can be successful in the same environment. Children with outstanding musical, artistic or sporting talents and those with special needs often require different resources and different types of schools. We therefore want to see a more diverse range of schools which better suit the individual needs of our children.

So we will enable educational charities, philanthropists, not-for-profit trusts and groups of parents to set up new schools and allow existing state schools to be run independently of local authorities.

They will all be non-selective and unable to charge fees. We will allow the sum of taxpayers' money which is devoted to the education of any child to follow them to any state-funded school of the parents' choice. We will give headteachers of schools remaining within local authority control more powers over the running of their own school, particularly in terms of discipline policy, recruitment of staff and control over how the school budget is spent.

The highest quality of teaching standards is crucial in raising standards in our schools. So too is good quality professional development and strong leadership throughout every level of the teaching profession. We support the findings of the recent Donaldson Report which stressed the need for the highest standards of teacher literacy and numeracy and we will continue to work with the General Teaching Council for Scotland and teacher training institutions to raise aspirations in the profession, to provide new routes into the teaching profession, more concurrent degree courses and to ensure there is renewed focus for teachers to keep up-to-date with their subject knowledge. We will ensure there are fewer barriers when it comes to teacher recruitment, by improving engagement between headteachers and the teacher training institutions, universities and employers. There needs to be more accurate information about both the short term and long term availability of teaching vacancies on a local rather than national basis.

There is growing evidence to show that our education system is failing far too many children. When it comes to literacy and numeracy, one in every six pupils currently leaves primary school unable to read, write or count properly. This means that too many children arrive at secondary school when the best opportunity to master these basic skills has been lost. Thirteen thousand pupils leave the Scottish schools system every year without acquiring good basics in reading and writing. There is growing evidence that the education systems in many comparable countries are performing far better. For example, in the Trends in International Maths and Science Survey (TIMSS), Scottish pupils were ranked below the global average in both maths and science. Such statistics are not acceptable. Greater focus on literacy and numeracy is essential, particularly in primary school. We will reform the process of testing reading, writing and arithmetic to make it more rigorous and to ensure that by the time pupils reach the end of P7 their progress in these basic skills is measured against nationally-agreed criteria. Whilst supporting the principles of the Curriculum for Excellence, we want to see as much focus on acquiring relevant subject knowledge as there is on acquiring relevant skills. We believe that traditional core subjects should be the foundation of all pupils' education.

We will also encourage greater cooperation between different schools so that there is more opportunity for pupils to gain access to the Higher and the Advanced Higher courses they require for college and university entrance and more opportunity for all pupils to gain access to good quality sports, music and drama facilities.

As well as ensuring that headteachers are able to decide the behaviour and uniform codes that will apply in their own school, we will pilot Second Chance Centres for the small minority of pupils who are persistently excluded from school and whose disruptive behaviour is preventing others from learning or teaching. The centres will be separate from the school environment and will enforce a strict code of discipline, while providing specialist help to refocus disruptive pupils' lives.

We believe that, as it stands, the education system fails to engage many young people who are unsuited to academic study or who would rather pursue a skilled trade. This is damaging to the Scottish economy and has created a skills shortage that frustrates householders and business people. We will encourage schools to introduce a more flexible curriculum structure which allows pupils to select either an academically-focussed path from S2 onwards or a more vocationally-focused path and we will work with SQA to ensure there is an examination system which reflects this. Pupils should be free to leave school at age 14 provided they engage in a monitored apprenticeship or a full-time vocational or technical training programme which can provide them with the necessary skills for the world of work.

According to the outgoing Scottish Government's own figures, over 70 percent of Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) payments are going to households defined as 'not deprived'. In keeping with its original purpose, we will reform the EMA so that it is targeted to help those most in need.

Please see pages 12-14 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 11/04/11 (5:28pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

REDUCING ENERGY CONSUMPTION

The first step to decarbonising our economy and ensuring energy security is reducing our energy consumption. A Scottish Conservative amendment in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 introduced the Green Council Tax discount and we will seek to improve the uptake of this through a public information campaign.

We will retain Home Energy Reports despite the abolition of Home Reports and consolidate the various energy efficiency schemes into one system, with residential and non-residential schemes. We will require Local Authorities to publish "heat maps" showing where demand is in their local areas, with a view to increasing the take up of district heating, where appropriate. In the public sector, we will require all public bodies to publish details of their energy consumption and commit to a target to reduce it.

A BALANCED ENERGY POLICY

We are determined that Scotland should be the place where a new generation of marine energy sources are developed. We have thousands of miles of coastline and the highest tidal reaches almost in the world, yet under Labour, we saw companies moving abroad to develop wave and tidal power and we want to reverse that trend. We will take up, in full, the UK Government's offer of additional funding through the Green Investment Bank and we will campaign for the bank to be headquartered in Scotland. And we want Britain to lead the world in Carbon Capture and Storage.

Our colleagues at Westminster are spending £1 billion on CCS. That's more than any other Government, anywhere in the world is giving to a single plant and we want that to be invested here in Scotland, at Longannet.

We welcome the review of nuclear safety that our colleagues in government at Westminster have ordered from the UK Chief Nuclear Inspector and we are confident that any lessons learned from his report will be applied to the UK's new build programme. Therefore, we will end the policy of current Scottish Government of refusing to consider replacement of existing nuclear power-generating capacity. Instead, we would consider any proposals to build on existing sites on their own merits. However, we would not permit any new sites to be used. Additionally, we will amend National Planning Framework 2 in order to designate the replacement of existing nuclear power generating capacity as National Developments.

Please see pages 25-26 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 11/04/11 (4:38pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

IMPROVING OUR LOCAL ENVIRONMENT

Scottish Conservatives promised a Town Centre Regeneration Fund in our last manifesto, and despite Labour and the Lib Dems trying to vote down the Fund, we delivered £60m of help to high streets across Scotland. We will institute at least one further round of the Town Centre Regeneration Fund.

To safeguard Scotland's landscape, we will introduce national strategic planning guidance for onshore wind to prevent inappropriately sited or sized windfarms. This will provide certainty to both communities and developers. We will also aim for a sensible and sustainable increase in new productive softwoods and promote themed days throughout the year to encourage environmental volunteering, such as beach clean ups.

Please see page 25 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 11/04/11 (5:38pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

QUESTION: Please state the party policy for the heading "Further and Higher Education". In particular, who should pay for a student's education? How much money would you invest in Scottish a) colleges and b) universities in the next two years?

Liz Smith [MSP, Scottish Conservative spokeswoman for education, candidate for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire] said: "Scottish Conservatives reject up-front fees, and we reject a pure graduate tax. We accept there is going to have to be a graduate contribution, repayable from future earnings and at an affordable rate. This is to maintain competitiveness and provide more bursary support than is currently available. We will set out further costed details of this proposal in due course.

"A progressive graduate contribution, repayable once a salary reaches a certain threshold at an affordable rate, is the only way of bridging the massive funding gap we will be faced with. As Iain McMillan of CBI Scotland says, both Labour and the SNP appear to be working on the figure of £93m instead of the £200m Universities Scotland believes will need to be found.

"Both the SNP and Scottish Labour are avoiding the tough decisions on higher education funding. These are two political parties willing to say anything to divert attention away from the real issues, as we approach the election. Students deserve better than that. Only the Scottish Conservatives will provide our students, colleges and universities with a sustainable future."

[SCREEN GRAB OF THIS POLICY]

Retrieved on 16/03/11 (2:36pm) from: Email Submission

REFORMING OUR NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE

Scottish Conservatives are committed to delivering better healthcare for Scotland's communities. We are proud of the excellent service provided by our NHS and those who work within it.

But the NHS can always be improved. We believe that reducing management costs will allow more money to be freed up to invest in front-line services, and protect vital local facilities. We also believe that providing a stronger service on the front line of primary care, through early identification of potential health concerns, will enable the NHS to work with families and individuals more effectively in looking after their own health.

The ultimate responsibility for an individual's good health rests with them personally. It is up to the individual to take an interest in their own healthcare and make appropriate lifestyle choices for their own wellbeing. Government's role is to support individuals in these choices, provide information and support, but also provide a greater degree of assistance for the vulnerable such as children and those from disadvantaged groups.

The NHS under the Scottish Conservatives will be protected from funding cuts, will fill gaps in service which currently exist, such as a lack of health visitors or poor access to vital cancer drugs, and will provide a new focus on improving the nation’s general health and wellbeing.

Because the Scottish Conservatives value the NHS, we will protect health spending, increasing it annually in line with inflation.

However, we still need to use this money efficiently. We start by reducing top-level management costs by 30 per cent in the Scottish NHS over the Parliament. All savings will go direct to frontline NHS services.

We opposed the SNP’s abolition of prescription charges, which took millions of pounds out of the NHS. We would reintroduce prescription charges at the 2009 level of £5 for a single item and £48 for a prepayment certificate - reinjecting £37m into the NHS. At the same time, we will review the list of conditions which are exempt from prescription charges to remove anomalies and widen the range. No individual or group who would have been exempt from charges prior to abolition will pay under our plans.

We also support the further development of the role of pharmacists when it comes to prescribing medication. This will allow more money to be saved through the use of generic drugs.

We propose free universal health checks for those aged between 40 and 74. Working with Community Pharmacy, we will deliver a range of drop-in services catching the early signs of potential problems and saving our NHS substantial sums in the long run.

We have supported moves by the Scottish Government to restrict Distinction Award payments and we will study the proposals from the UK Government when published. Our preference is for a UK wide reform of these payments.

As we have been prepared to make tough decisions elsewhere in the NHS, we will be able to introduce a Cancer Drugs Fund of up to £10m to ensure that Scottish patients have at least the same access to clinically effective drugs as patients in England and establish a new IVF Fund to broaden access to fertility treatment, giving additional funding to those Health Boards providing a minimum standard of IVF access in their area.

We need to remove the inappropriate emphasis on ideology and targets and shift the focus to clinical discretion and what really matters: patient outcomes. With this in mind, we will ensure NHS Boards have the freedom to commission voluntary and private sector care and remove the ban on entities other than GP partnerships providing primary care.

To improve access to healthcare, we will pilot walk-in treatment centres in our major cities, which could be set up either by the NHS or by independent providers using their own capital. We will review the provision of out of hours services, and will seek to amend the contract for Scottish GPs if necessary to ensure adequate services are provided. In return, we will give GPs a greater leadership role in Community Health Partnerships.

We will work with the British Dental Association and local health boards to ensure that every Scot has access to a Dentist, at the same time as pushing for much greater emphasis on the preventative measures needed to improve oral health.

For too long, mental health services have also been given insufficient attention by policymakers. We will promote increased use of talking therapies within the NHS. We will encourage health boards to make greater use of telehealth and telecare to improve access to healthcare for patients, particularly those in remote and rural areas.

To deliver these improvements, it is clear that some structural changes are required. We will review the Scottish NHS structure with a view to reducing the number of health boards and health quangos. Equally, we will look to rationalise the non-geographic NHS boards. While we will allow the pilots for part-elected NHS boards to continue in NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Fife, we will assess their success during the next Parliament before taking a view on the suitability of part-elected boards across the NHS in Scotland.

We also believe that members of the general public need to be given the power to trigger Independent Scrutiny Panels when major service changes are under discussion. We will achieve this my introducing a threshold petition system.

The NHS needs a culture of continuous quality improvement to drive up standards and NHS workers must be confident that they can raise concerns without fear of recrimination. To ensure that this is a reality, we will make it easier for NHS workers to "whistleblow" by requiring all NHS Boards to adhere to a consistent national whistleblowing procedure.

We will take action across all parts of government - the criminal justice system as well as the NHS - to help tackle problem alcohol consumption. To support this, we want to see Scotland follow the UK Government's lead and ban the sale of alcohol below the cost of duty and VAT.

Please see pages 15-18 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 11/04/11 (2:10pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

HELPING FAMILIES GET HOMES

People get a sense of pride from owning their own home and home ownership gives people a stake in the maintenance and improvement of their neighbourhood. It also fosters social mobility and enables people to build up capital.

That is why we believe that as many Scots as possible should have the opportunity to share in the benefits of home ownership. That must include those who live in social housing. So we will reinstate a "modernised Right to Buy" for new (and recently built) social houses in local authority ownership.

Scottish Conservatives support the work of our housing associations which have a leading role to play in the provision of new affordable housing. We support stock transfer by councils to housing associations with tenant approval. We will use Right To Buy receipts, stock transfer and institutional investment to fund construction of social houses rather than placing so much of the burden on higher rents, as the SNP is doing.

We will introduce additional weighting for local people and people with a proven family connection in council and Registered Social Landlords' allocation of housing.

We will encourage the replication of Edinburgh's Private Sector Leasing Scheme throughout Scotland. We will abolish Home Reports to help get the property market moving again.

Please see pages 23-24 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 11/04/11 (5:04pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

REFORMING LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Scotland's largest cities have been let down by their political leadership in recent years. To give people the chance of renewed and accountable local leadership, we will give people the chance to have a powerful, elected provost by holding referenda in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee.

Scottish Conservatives successfully argued for the ending of ring fencing for Local Government funding, but the SNP Government introduced new bureaucracy in its place. We will abolish the concordat. It will be replaced with a requirement upon councils to set out their own plans and report on progress. To speed up decision-making and communication with business, the voluntary sector and the public, one criterion that councils will have to report against is the percentage of correspondence that they reply to within three weeks.

We will review the funding formula for local government to ensure fairness for all parts of Scotland. Unlike the review undertaken in the current Parliament, we will ensure that all issues, including rurality, are taken into account. We will seek to do this with the agreement of COSLA, and to phase in any changes over a period of years.

However, all local authorities need to make savings in order to protect front-line services. We will ask the Accounts Commission to report on the extent that each council shares services with other public sector bodies. We will give councils a further financial incentive to share services, by amending the Council Funding formula. We will also extend our "transparency revolution" to local government, with a £500 reporting threshold for non-salary payments.

We believe that local authorities can do more to sustain the communities that they represent. We will require local authorities to allocate a budget to community councils, proportionate to the size of the area they cover, so that more community councils may undertake their own projects. We will also introduce a framework for local authorities to open "council counters" in Post Office branches.

Please see pages 9-10 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 10/04/11 (11:30pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

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Extracted from Scottish Conservative Party manifesto

Retrieved on 19/04/11 (4:02pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

SUSTAINING OUR FISHING COMMUNITIES

We recognise the importance of fishing to the Scottish Economy. While we are not prepared to make empty promises like the SNP, we are determined to do all we can to secure serious reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, with conservation and industry working hand in-hand. We know that we will have the support of UK Ministers, and believe that the best hope for the industry is for the UK to speak with one voice. We must make the reduction of discards a high priority, while securing improved management of fish stocks and the prosperity of our fishing industry.

We are also committed to pursuing domestic fisheries reform. In particular, we will provide Civil Service support to investigate the possible development of a vertically integrated, market focused, co-operative model for the demersal sector. We will also encourage and support aquaculture in appropriately sited developments.

PROMOTING LOCAL FOOD

Consumers often want to buy Scottish or local produce but are put off by confusing or even misleading labelling. We will legislate to ensure honesty in geographical labelling for food. So that government shows a lead in reducing food miles, we will encourage procurement of local food across the public sector, and retain the Single Farm Payment.

To help small, local producers and improve the viability of Scottish farming as a whole, we will move quickly to put in place a risk-based regime for meat inspection, comparable in scope and simplicity with those of EU nations which have modernized their inspection services.

Finally, to help people grow their own food, develop their leisure time and improve the appearance of their local area, we will introduce a right to request disused publicly-owned land be put into use as allotments. We will also provide Civil Service support to create a new Social Enterprise, "Growing Scotland", to run an online matching service for people seeking to form gardening cooperatives or to share/borrow plots.

Please see pages 26-27 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 11/04/11 (4:38pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

ENCOURAGING PARTICIPATION IN SPORT

We want to make the Glasgow Commonwealth Games a great success. We will use the Games to encourage greater participation in sport across all age groups, and focus on leaving a lasting legacy of sporting facilities for after 2014.

We believe extra-curricular activities are an invaluable part of any child's education. In particular, we believe there should be more opportunities for school sport and outdoor education. We will set up a charitable trust fund, into which we will commit an initial £2m, which will have the specific aim of giving all pupils the opportunity of receiving one full week of residential outdoor education at least once between the ages of 11 and 15, and more opportunities to participate in grassroots sport.

Finally, we will promote sponsored bike schemes for our towns and cities to encourage greater participation in cycling.

Please see page 27 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 10/04/11 (1:47am) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

REFORMING TAX TO KEEP BILLS LOW

We will not use the existing or future Scottish Parliament tax powers to increase income tax in the next Parliament or impose new taxes, such as the discredited local income tax.

Scottish Conservatives first called for a Council Tax Freeze in 2003. Under Labour and the Liberal Democrats, Council Tax increased by 62 per cent in Scotland. In the face of opposition from the same two parties, Scottish Conservatives have ensured that the Council Tax has remained frozen since 2007, and we will now go further. We will freeze the Council Tax until at least 2013. However, the Council Tax Freeze can't continue indefinitely. Looking ahead to when it eventually has to come to an end, we will change the law to give local residents the power to stop bills rising faster than inflation.

Eligibility for Council Tax Benefit is higher for pensioners than for the population as a whole, but take-up of the benefit is not universal. To help tackle this, and to ensure that those who have contributed to society over the years get a fair deal on tax, we will legislate to introduce a Pensioner Discount from 2013-14, initially set at £200 per household. The discount will be available to all households where all adults have reached the State Pension Age. Students living in the household, and others who are ignored for Council Tax purposes, will not affect eligibility.

We will not hold a council tax revaluation, nor will we introduce new bands or change the ratios between the bands. We will make no changes to the structure of Council Tax which would increase bills.

We will remove the power to charge drivers for using existing roads from the statute books.

Please see page 22 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 11/04/11 (2:36pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

DEVELOPING TOURISM

The tourism industry is vital to Scotland's economy and visitor spend is currently around £4.1 billion a year. It provides employment for roughly 210,000 people, spread all over Scotland.

A growth ambition was set by the industry and the Labour/Lib Dem Scottish Executive in 2005 to grow the revenue from Scottish tourism by 50 per cent over ten years. We are now past the halfway point, with zero growth.

If Scotland is going to remain a major player, we believe that it has to compete on quality, not price. That means getting skills right, getting investment into the industry and getting a year-round strategy.

We need a highly trained and skilled workforce. We have to get everything right, from the welcome to the general standard of customer care. Tourism training in Scotland currently involves over 400 courses provided by 40 different institutions. We will establish a private sector group to deliver a wholesale rationalisation, creating a smaller number of industry-approved courses provided by fewer providers. The system must become demand-led so that we tackle the mismatch that exists between the skills required by employers and the skills offered by applicants.

Investment is needed to improve the fabric of the industry, yet many tourism businesses are struggling to raise finance at the moment. So we will investigate the viability of a Scottish Tourism Investment Bank, based on the Austrian model.

We will lead development of a "Year-Round Tourism Strategy". This will help ensure that tourism businesses make a continuous contribution to their local economies and will make employment in the industry more stable and rewarding, which will in turn raise the calibre of entrants and encourage the retention and development of staff.

We will retain the number of Tourist Information Centres (TICs), although encourage premises-sharing with other organisations. We will ensure all TICs provide Scotland-wide information to encourage tourists to travel throughout Scotland.

To encourage more visitors to come to Scotland, we will aim to establish an EU compliant successor to the Air Route Development Fund.

Historic Scotland manages many sites that are in an enviable position for encouraging visitors to take advantage of a whole host of tourism opportunities across Scotland. We will place a formal obligation on Historic Scotland to promote tourism across Scotland.

Please see page 12 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 09/04/11 (9:05pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

CTP has chosen to extract details on this policy from two different sections of the party manifesto, pages detailed below

INVESTING IN INFRASTRUCTURE

Scotland's future economic prosperity depends on strategic investment in capital infrastructure. Previous governments have wasted too much money on poorly planned schemes and have refused to prioritise. We will accelerate the introduction of superfast broadband across Scotland to ensure our economic competitiveness is maintained.

We will introduce by November 2011 an updated Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR), providing an indication of the relative priority and timeframe for each project. We believe that all existing timetabled projects can be retained.

The updated STPR will prioritise resources on projects assessed to be of greatest economic benefit, which will put the focus on maintaining and upgrading existing core road and rail infrastructure. Scottish Conservatives believe that the replacement Forth Crossing is Scotland's top transport priority. In view of the importance of the North-East economy to Scotland, and underinvestment in the area under Labour and the Liberal Democrats, we rank the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route Scotland's second most important road project. We will also pilot the introduction of hard shoulder-running, initially on sections of M77 and M8.

We will use the borrowing provision made available by the UK Government to enable completion of the new Forth Crossing. This will ensure that other, worthy capital projects are not unnecessarily delayed, and that we can introduce a Road Maintenance Fund. As a result, we can also make commitments on the rail network, which will improve services and encourage modal shift. In particular, we will continue the Edinburgh-Glasgow Rail Improvement Programme. However, leveraging additional private investment is also important and so from the next renewal, we will make the Scotrail franchise available for an extended period of 10 years, making clear that we expect savings in subsidy or improved investment in rolling stock or better services in exchange. We will establish an implementation group to liaise with the UK Government to maximise potential reductions in journey times for Scots as a result of new high speed rail links to London.

We will retain existing lifeline ferry services but will make savings in the Scottish Government's ferry subsidy, partly by tendering the CALMAC and Northlink contracts in smaller bundles.

We will put the Bus Services Operators' Grant on a sustainable footing, and encourage Local Authorities to provide funding to supplement BSOG awards.

We will retain but reform the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT), and give it access to the full range of funding options, including PPP. We expect the SFT to deliver savings in capital procurement above its current level and will require all public bodies to seek advice from SFT for all procurement. Like all public bodies under our plans, the SFT will have to demonstrate the impact of its decisions on the Scottish economy.

We will introduce a Bill to reform Scottish Water, ending the reliance on taxpayer funding while protecting customers with an enhanced regulatory regime. Scottish Water will become a publicly-owned Public Interest Company, free from government control.

The Edinburgh Trams Project has become a national embarrassment. By now, trams should have been running in Edinburgh. Despite a positive review on progress from the Auditor General in 2007, since then neither the Lib Dem/SNP City of Edinburgh Council, Transport Initiatives Edinburgh, or the Scottish Government through Transport Scotland, have exercised any leadership of the project, which is now not only delayed and likely to be scaled back, but also substantially over budget. We will therefore not provide any more central government grant funding for Edinburgh trams.

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We will abolish Regional Transport Partnerships, with the exception of Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, which will return to its previous state as solely a provider of services rather than a co-ordination body. Local authorities will be encouraged to work together where this is sensible. We will also require local authorities to subject road maintenance work to competitive tender.

Please see pages 6-7, and page 11, of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 11/04/11 (5:50pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto