Scottish Labour Leader, Anas Sarwar, has committed his party to maintaining ‘successes of devolution’ – a range of entitlements that are only available in Scotland – including free university tuition for Scottish students, free prescriptions, bus passes and the Scottish Child Payment.
Speaking in the run up to the Scottish Labour Party’s annual conference in Glasgow where Scottish Labour will be outlining its new direction for Scotland, Anas Sarwar has set out that a future Scottish Labour Government would maintain a range of entitlements that successive Scottish Governments have implemented since the advent of devolution.
Scottish Labour Leader, Anas Sarwar said: “Over the 25 years of devolution, successive Scottish Governments of different political parties have introduced a range of measures that symbolise some of the real successes of devolution.
“When my party was last in Government in Scotland, we introduced the ground-breaking policy of free personal care and the current Government scrapped prescription charges for Scots.
“A Scottish Labour led Government refused to introduce tuition fees on Scottish students and this has been maintained by following governments.
“Scottish Labour was proud to introduce free bus passes for older and disabled people in Scotland which has since been expanded and now also enables free travel for Scotland’s young people.
“These polices, alongside others including the Scottish Child Payment, baby box and free school lunches have been a success and would be maintained by a Government that I lead.
“These are important policies that an incoming Scottish Labour government will maintain, but we also need to do much more to improve outcomes for Scots.
“Free prescriptions are welcome but they need to be tied to better health outcomes, and free tuition is positive but we need to make sure the education on offer is world class for all.
“That’s why a Scottish Labour government will never use these positive policy decisions as fig leaves to hide poor outcomes for Scots and that is why Scottish Labour will set out its plans for better outcomes for every Scot.
“The UK Labour Government ended Tory austerity and delivered the largest budget settlement for Scotland in the history of devolution. This additional £5.2 billion would help us to maintain these policies, but they are just one part of the answer – if we want to fundamentally improve people’s lives and tackle structural poverty then we need to fix our NHS, change the way we deliver public services and create an economy that works for every Scot.
“A Government I lead will deliver the new direction Scotland needs.”