The Scottish economy grew by 0.9% in February and is now 7.4% below pre-pandemic levels. The hospitality industry remains the hardest hit sector of the economy however, with the easing of lockdown restrictions late last month, there is some hope for this industry.
With less than a week to go before polling day, what issues can we take from the election debates and party manifestos? Here are six takeaways.
Many parties have put the economic recovery front and centre of their offer to the Scottish people in this election campaign. But what are the policies they are actually offering?
There is an apparent consensus among the main political parties that there needs to be additional action in the next parliament on poverty, and particularly child poverty. This article looks across the manifestos to review action on the three main policy areas that can make the biggest difference to poverty in the here and now: social security, work and housing, to tackle poverty.
The latest Addleshaw Goddard Business Monitor report – produced in partnership with the University of Strathclyde’s Fraser of Allander Institute – indicates that firms are more optimistic about their expected volume of business over the next six months with employment also expected to increase.
As the election approaches, we analyse the parties’ 2021 Scottish election manifestos on some of the issues that might be important for people with learning disabilities – a group that was largely ignored at the last election.
Some of the parties have committed to infrastructure or capital programmes, which can have very large sums attached to them over multiple years. Often, though, there will also be estimates for the number of jobs “created” or “supported” due to these programmes. But how do the parties come up with these numbers?
A number of new powers on social security have been devolved to Scotland over the last parliament. This article provides an overview of what the parties are proposing to do with these new powers at this election.
This article compares the main parties’ manifesto commitments on taxation and the most significant areas of public spending: health and social care; early years and education; local government; social security; and policing and justice.
The UK’s devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are responsible for designing and implementing large parts of the health and economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But how effectively do their funding settlements enable them to do this? Do the devolved funding settlements adequately protect the devolved governments from funding risks, or impede their policy responses?