The Scottish National Party’s 2019 manifesto, published yesterday, recognises the social, cultural and economic importance of the creative industries to Scotland. The manifesto emphasises that the total contribution of the creative industries to the Scottish economy has grown by 62 per cent between 2008 and 2017.
TIGA has extracted the relevant elements of the manifesto and provided a summary below.
Creative Industries
The SNP promises to:
- continue to support tax incentives for creative industries, including for film and television, and for more work to increase equality, inclusion and diversity across the sector;
- press the UK Government to invest in digital connectivity including superfast broadband and 5G technology;
- provide access to superfast broadband to every home and business in Scotland, investing £600 million towards this, with the UK Government providing just £21 million of that figure;
- call on the Shared Rural Network to deliver 95% 4G mobile coverage in Scotland; and
- work with broadband and mobile service providers to make more affordable tariffs and packages more widely available.
Gambling
The SNP promises to:
- press for greater devolution of gambling regulation to the Scottish Parliament and press the UK Government to stop underage gambling on video games.
Online Harms
The SNP promises to:
- put in place new standards and measures so social media, gaming and technology organisations protect their users fully including having a statutory duty of care and mandatory obligations to tackle unsuitable content that can lead to self-harm and suicide, sexual exploitation, grooming, abuse and extremism;
- make an appointment of a new independent Online Regulator with the ability to take action such as imposing heavy fines and blocking access to sites;
- ensure age verification for sites that are not suitable for children or have lower age limits, like the existing rules for films; and
- impose a levy on technology companies to fully fund the regulator and associated resources.
Immigration
The SNP promises to:
- oppose Conservative plans to introduce a minimum salary threshold – preventing anyone earning less than £30,000 from being admitted to the UK;
- oppose the Immigration Skills Charge, which charges employers up to £5,000 per non-EEA worker; and
- support a review of the citizenship application process, with a view to bringing down its cost and reducing its complexity.
The full manifesto can be found here.