Air passenger duty will be cut by 50% by the end of the next parliament, Nicola Sturgeon confirmed yesterday.
Outlining her vision for the next decade, the first minister said the reduction would begin in April 2018 with the introduction of a replacement Scottish tax.
Holyrood can only bring in the relevant legislation once the Scotland Bill has been passed by the UK Government.
Ms Sturgeon said she hoped it would be backed by the Scottish Parliament by March.
While she admitted the package of devolution reforms was “not as ambitious as we would like”, she added it would provide “some additional powers to benefit individuals, businesses and local communities”.
But she warned Westminster that MSPs would only support the legislation if the accompanying deal on Scotland’s funding was “fair”.
“Let me make clear that we will only recommend consent if the accompanying fiscal framework is also fair to Scotland,” she said.
The SNP leader was outlining her government’s plans for the next year and beyond if her party wins next year’s election.
She also announced a raft of measures aimed at making Scotland “the real northern powerhouse” and the best place to do business.
She said the small business bonus would continue for the duration of the next parliament and outlined a £40million growth fund for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Putting education at the heart of her programme for the coming year, she revealed national testing would be brought into Scotland’s primary schools in an effort to improve educational achievement.
Ensuring youngsters do better in classes is “arguably the single most important objective” in her legislative programme”, she
said.
To that end, new national, standardised assessments are to be introduced for pupils in primaries one, four and seven, as well as for youngsters in the third year of secondary school.
Ms Sturgeon added: “I have no desire to see crude league tables that distort rather than enhance our understanding of children’s attainment and school performance.
“However, I am determined that we make available much more information about performance in primary and lower secondary school.”
The programme, presented in the first week back after summer recess, includes eight new bills. Among them is the Social Security Bill, to be introduced in the first year of the new parliament, paving the way for a new Scottish social security system.
Ms Sturgeon said this would provide for the “earliest possible abolition of the bedroom tax”.
In the meantime, she added, the Scottish Government would invest £100million this year to mitigate against the impact of the UK Government’s welfare reforms.
“We will continue to stand against a UK Government that imposes austerity on the vulnerable while preparing to spend billions renewing Trident,” the first minister insisted.
In addition, she said changes would be made to make Police Scotland more accountable and announced an additional £195million for the Help To Buy scheme over the next three years.
A Private Tenancies Bill is also proposed, which will include provisions for rent controls to be brought in in certain areas.
On health, Ms Sturgeon said new systems of GP care would be tried out in at least 10 sites across Scotland over the next year and pledged £100million to improve mental health services.
With the proposed Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm Bill, also announced in yesterday’s statement, the Scottish Government plans to create a new offence to tackle the problem of people sharing private pictures of former partners in so-called “revenge porn” cases.