Peak rail fares scrapped and 100,000 more GP appointments as SNP bids for fifth election win

6 May 2025, 18:12

John Swinney has vowed to scrap peak time rail fares in Scotland this September and increase GP appointments by 100,000 as he unveiled the his government programme for the next 12 months, running up to the Holyrood elections.

But he came under fire from opposition leaders and campaigners who accused him of stealing other parties' policies and of "treading water" on the big issues.

The Scottish First Minister set out his Programme for Government, detailing the work ministers will do over the coming 12 months as he seeks to win an unprecedented fifth Holyrood election.

But two of his keynote announcements - on GP appointments and ending peak-time rail fares - echo commitments already made by Scottish Labour.

Indeed Anas Sarwar accused the First Minister of having "nicked" his policies, quipping: "It's not exactly the borrowing powers I thought the SNP had in mind" before accusing John Swinney of presiding over a collapse in the NHS with "one in six Scots on waiting lists, and no plan to fix it."

Mr Swinney insisted he was putting a "renewed and stronger NHS" at the heart of his government's plans.

He said he accepted the difficulty many faced in getting GP appointments which can cause "deep frustration" in what he said was "described as the 8am lottery".

To tackle that, he promised "an extra 100,000 appointments in GP surgeries", with the SNP leader going on to add these would be "focused on key risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and smoking".

Meanwhile, he said the move to scrap peak-time rail fares for good from September 2025 would form part of the "package of cost-of-living support" offered by the Scottish Government.

A previous pilot project had already seen peak-time rail fares in Scotland scrapped, leaving travellers paying the cheaper, off-peak prices regardless of when they travelled, but that had been ditched last year after it failed to drive more people from their cars to trains.

Today he told MSPs: "Given the work we have done to get Scotland's finances in a stronger position, and hearing also the calls from commuters, from climate activists and from the business community, I can confirm that, from September 1 this year, peak rail fares in Scotland will be scrapped for good."

However on the commitment to offer more GP appointments, Dr Iain Morrison, the chair of BMA Scotland's GP committee described it as "a drop in the ocean when you consider GP practices in Scotland deliver 650,000 appointments every week."

He added that the "rhetoric on this is failing to match the reality" from the Scottish Government.

"There seems to be no difficulty in building up expectations that access to GPs will improve, but the solutions do not seem to be as easily forthcoming, which will leave GPs deeply frustrated."

The comments came as campaigners at Oxfam Scotland accused the Scottish Government of "treading water while the storms of poverty, inequality and the climate crisis rage."

Jamie Livingstone, head of the charity in Scotland, blasted: "This programme for government is too quiet on inequality, too soft on polluters and too slow on change" while John Dickie, director of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland, said that while the government talked of ending child poverty the "programme for government lacks the scale and urgency needed to meet statutory targets never mind achieve the FM's ambition to eradicate child poverty altogether.

"We will need to see a rapid ratcheting up of investment, including a substantive boost to the Scottish child payment in line with what independent experts say is needed if targets are to be met."

And Tessa Khan, executive director at Uplift, challenged the commitments on climate change.

She said: “The First Minister rightly recognises the threats that climate change poses to Scotland’s people and economy – these can hardly be ignored given the enormous harm and costs already this year from Storm Eowyn and the recent wildfires. What’s not obvious is whether he is prepared to turn words into action.

“Where is the government’s plan to insulate homes, which is the easiest route to reducing household energy bills? Where’s the transition plan for Scotland’s energy workers, who have seen the number of jobs supported by the oil and gas industry more than halve in the past decade?

"Meanwhile, the Scottish government remains on the fence on new oil and gas projects, despite climate scientists warning that they will push us past safe climate limits.

“If John Swinney is serious about taking on the populists and their empty anti-net zero rhetoric, he needs to turn his words into action. Acting on climate will make Scotland a wealthier, fairer, greener country, but his government needs to deliver.”

Responding to the whole programme, Stephen Boyd, director of the IPPR Scotland think tank, said: "John Swinney identified the right strategic priorities but failed to provide sufficient substance on how rapid and significant progress on child poverty, the economy, climate change and public services would be delivered over the coming year."

John Swinney also pledged more support for businesses to help them with exports in the face of US tariffs, and more money for the Acorn carbon capture and storage project planned for the north east of Scotland.

While the Scottish Government has previously pledged £80 million for this, he said he would "remove that cap and increase the amount of Scottish funding that is available" - although this will only happen if the project is given the go ahead by the UK Government.

Overall he told MSPs at Holyrood that his plans amounted to a "programme for a better Scotland".

He said: "Centred on delivery, providing hope, it is a programme that seeks what is best for Scotland, a programme for government that gets our nation on track for success."

But Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said the SNP Government had already failed to keep its commitments to increase GP numbers - saying that on this issue "no one will believe" the First Minister.

"This flimsy programme for government is just more of the same from the SNP and will do little to restore public trust," he said - and pointed to the lack of SNP backbenchers in the chamber to hear the programme.

He added: "John Swinney is the politician who has failed to deliver for the past 18 years, the politician who has wasted more public money than anyone else, the politician who is now desperately trying to clear up his own mess. John Swinney can't possibly be the solution because he has caused the problems."

Similarly, Mr Sarwar said: "After nearly two decades in power, if the SNP had any ideas they would have delivered them by now. The party and the man who created this mess can't be the ones to fix it."