The first minister turns to health and says the NHS Recovery Plan will be supported by more than £1bn of targeted investment over this parliament.

She pledges:

• £50m to help improve Accident and Emergency waiting times
• waits of more than 18 months for outpatients will be eliminated in most specialties by the end of this year, and for inpatients by September next year
• elimination of waits of more than one year for outpatients by March next year; and for inpatients and day cases by September 2024
• the next four national treatment centres will open over the coming year, in Fife, Forth Valley, Highland and at the Golden Jubilee in Glasgow.
• investment of a further £10m to improve waiting times for cancer diagnostics and treatments, and establish a further two Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services

Image source, Getty Images

Over autumn and winter, Covid booster shots, alongside flu vaccines, will be offered to those most vulnerable to serious illness.

The government will provide NHS boards with funding and support to deliver co-ordinated services for those living with long Covid.

The Scottish Association of Landlords has said that the move to freeze rents was an "easy option" which "attacked landlords".

Its chief executive John Blackwood said that the government had failed to help tenants directly and instead had chosen to "penalise people who have provided the homes politicians have failed to provide for decades".

Image source, Reuters

The first minister outlines further measures to help families with the cost of the school day, plus other education reforms.

• Free school meals - already available to all pupils in primary 1 to 5 - will be extended to include all pupils in primary 6 and 7
• The first £50m of a £500m family wellbeing fund will be invested to help vulnerable families
• A Children’s Care and Justice Bill will be introduced, which among other measures will end the practice of placing children under 18 in young offenders’ institutions
• Options to extend year-round childcare for school-age children will be designed and tested
• Work will start on a further 17 new schools in the year ahead
• An Education Reform Bill will establish an independent education inspectorate and a new public body responsible for qualifications
• £200m each year will be invested to help eliminate the poverty-related attainment gap by 2026, with a new commissioner appointed to help widen access to higher education

Stark warning on cash shortagepublished at 15:12 British Summer Time 6 September 2022

15:12 BST 6 September 2022

Glenn Campbell
BBC Scotland Political Editor

Nicola Sturgeon’s plans to freeze rents, ban evictions and raise the child payment to £25 a week will make the headlines today.

But these announcements were prefaced with a very stark warning from the first minister - that the Scottish government is getting short of cash.

That rising inflation has reduced their spending power and that larger than expected pay deals for public sector workers and other cost-of-living help will also limit what they can spend elsewhere.

In short, “hard choices” lie ahead and the Scottish government won’t be able to do everything it would like.

That may not only mean rejecting new demands but potentially delaying or dropping some existing commitments.

The first minister did not give details. It seems that is being delegated to her deputy, John Swinney, who is due to make a separate financial statement tomorrow.

As confirmed earlier, Nicola Sturgeon says the increase in the Scottish Child Payment from £20 to £25 per week - applying to 400,000 under-16s from 14 November - will "tackle child poverty, increase opportunity and improve educational attainment".

She highlights the fact that the payment will have increased by 150% in less than eight months, and constitutes support of £1,300 per year for each child.

The Early Learning and School Age Payments will also now be awarded automatically to families in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment, without the need for a further application.

Two Child Payment bridging payments will be made by the end of the year, the FM says.

Although she cannot commit today to increases in the value of those payments, Ms Sturgeon confirms "this will be given priority consideration in the emergency budget review".

Image source, PA Media

Nicola Sturgeon's plan to freeze rents in the private sector has been branded a "sign of desperation" by Scotland's largest lettings agency.

David Alexander, chief executive officer of DJ Alexander Scotland Ltd, said the first minister's proposal "tells you all you need to know about the Scottish government’s commitment to consultation and fairness".

Ms Sturgeon sought to "gain cheap political points" by placing the cost burden of the freeze on landlords," he said, "whilst not addressing the fundamental failings of her own government’s housing policy”.

“No government would tell supermarkets, pubs or clothing manufacturers to freeze the cost of their goods, but it seems that Nicola Sturgeon and her colleagues believe the private rented sector is fair game," Mr Alexander said.

The policy would lead to "a shrinking of the private rented sector at a time when demand is at its highest", and "councils are seeking help from the private sector to house the homeless", he added.

The first minister says her priority is to provide security and stability and safeguard jobs and homes.

"We will put as much money as possible into people’s pockets through decent pay rises," she says.

The programme for the year ahead will also address longer-term challenges to build a "wealthier, fairer and greener country".

• A Housing Bill will improve affordability for the longer term and provide new rights for tenants
• Eligibility for the Warmer Homes Scotland programme - helping households to install energy efficiency measures - will be extended
• A £25m Clyde Mission Decarbonisation Fund will be launched to support zero emission heat projects and communal heating systems along the length of the Clyde.

Image source, Getty Images

Ms Sturgeon says that although she does not have the power to freeze energy prices, she will use Scotland’s powers to “bear down on costs”.

To that end:

• ScotRail fares will be frozen until at least March 2023
• The government will encourage banks and other financial services firms to take an approach that maximises security for homeowners and businesses
• It will also raise the minimum threshold at which bank arrestments can be made, introducing regulations to give greater protection to those repaying debts through the Debt Arrangement Scheme, via a new Bankruptcy and Diligence Bill

Turning to her “priority actions”, the first minister says the Scottish government will take the following steps to “strengthen the safety net” for those who are struggling to pay bills.

It will:

• Double the fuel security fund from £10m to £20m this year
• Give local authorities flexibility to use discretionary housing payments to help with energy costs and rent payments, plus increase funding for Discretionary Housing Payments by £5m
• Extend eligibility for the Tenant Grant Fund so it can provide help for those struggling to pay rent owing to wider cost of living increases

The first minister says her government's emergency budget review is intended to maximise the help it can provide - while still balancing the books.

"That will mean stopping some things we planned to do, to fund what is essential to support people through this crisis," she says.

"John Swinney will say more about the budget review in a statement tomorrow."

However, the budget review cannot be finished until the Scottish government understands the impact of decisions that will be taken at Westminster in the days and weeks ahead.

Ms Sturgeon says that within two weeks of an expected UK government budget, the Scottish government will lay out an emergency Scottish government budget review to parliament.

This will then inform its Annual Budget Bill for 2023/24.

Image source, PA Media

About 38% of Scottish homes are in the rented sector which is made up of three key elements;

• 14% - private rentals
• 14% - local authority
• 10% - housing associations

A government consultation paper, external published in December last year, said that since 1981, the number of local authority rented homes had fallen by some 713,000 properties due to "Right to Buy" sales as well as stock transfers to housing associations.

It went on to say that the rate of decrease had slowed in recent years due to an increase in new supply of local authority housing from 2007 onwards and the "Right to Buy" scheme ending in 2016.

In the past 20 years the private rented sector has grown by more than two-and-a-half times from 130,000 to 340,000.

The first minister says the Scottish "budget today is worth a staggering £1.7 billion less than when it was published last December".

Ms Sturgeon says: "Our job in the midst of a cost crisis is not to press down on pay. Our job is to boost it with every penny we can lay our hands on."

She goes on to say: "Unless Westminster increases the total amount of money available, every additional percentage point on a pay deal, and every pound we spend on measures to help with rising costs, must be funded by reductions elsewhere in our budget."

Analysispublished at 14:47 British Summer Time 6 September 2022

14:47 BST 6 September 2022

FM to increase Scottish Child Payment

Douglas Fraser
Scotland business & economy editor

The Scottish Child Payment was introduced in 2019, at £10 per eligible child under the age of six. That was expected at the time to raise around 30,000 children out of poverty. A promise to double it and extend its age reach was made during the 2021 Holyrood election campaign.

That intention has now gone further, to £25 per child per week, covering those aged up to 16.

According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, this should "greatly improve the adequacy of support for families, particularly for larger families".

But in its Poverty in Scotland report, last October, it concluded that other changes are required, with targeted support in Scotland to those in most need of help, and higher levels of benefits from the Department of Work and Pensions in Whitehall.

"Even with the doubling of the child payment we will not meet the interim child poverty target," it said.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission, meanwhile, has warned that promises being made under the welfare and benefits powers newly devolved to Holyrood are on course to squeeze other important budgets for public services.

Ms Sturgeon calls on the UK government to :

• Cancel the October rise in the energy cap and freeze energy bills right away, including businesses and the third sector.
• Target additional cash support to those already struggling
• Increase the budgets of devolved governments - or grant greater powers to borrow - so they can do more to help public services and workers.
• Introduce an enhanced windfall profits tax

Nicola Sturgeon says the Scottish Child Payment will rise to £25 per week, applying to 400,000 under-16s from 14 November.

Image source, PA Media

A new UK prime minister has of course just been appointed.

"I congratulate Liz Truss and wish her well.

"Our political differences are significant, but, as with the previous three prime ministers, I will work hard to establish a good working relationship."

The first minister reiterates her call for an emergency four-nation summit on the cost crisis.

You can follow live coverage of Liz Truss becoming PM here.

Nicola Sturgeon confirms emergency legislation to freeze rents for tenants in both private and social housing until the end of March next year.

She said she did not have the power to freeze energy prices but was taking measures to give people security they needed through the winter.

The emergency legislation will also include a moratorium on evictions.

Ms Sturgeon calls for action to reform the energy market, action to freeze energy prices, more cash support for those struggling and increased funding for public services.

The powers to deal with the crisis do not lie with the Scottish Parliament, they are reserved to Westminster.

Mitigation is nowhere near sufficient, continues the first minister.

"So it is essential today that I also address the wider context," she adds.

Action on a scale that is similar to the Covid response is required, Ms Sturgeon tells the chamber.

She says this action must tackle inflation and pull the UK back from the brink.