New Deal for Business Group: final progress report

Executive Summary

1. The New Deal for Business was a 24-month programme put in place to catalyse a culture change and to improve how the Scottish Government works with business.

2. The New Deal for Business Group was initially chaired by Neil Gray MSP, the former Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy and Dr Poonam Malik. Five Subgroups feed into the main Group, four of which were chaired by a lead from Industry, with the remaining group on Non-Domestic Rates chaired by the Minister for Public Finance. Mairi Mc Allan MSP current Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing economy, Net Zero and Energy held the Co-Chair role between February and May 2024 when Kate Forbes MSP, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for the Economy and Gaelic, took on the role, post appointment of new First Minister and cabinet reshuffle.

3. The Subgroups worked together in the first 6 months to develop recommendations to The Group for improvement, charted over an 18-month implementation period. The recommendations were then further grouped under 6 outcomes.

4. The 18-month timetable published in Oct 2023 was ambitious. Whilst all 78 recommendations could not be delivered in full in this challenging timeframe, all six overarching outcomes have been achieved and business stakeholders have noticed real examples of tangible improvement, and the work continues.

5. Key enhancements include:

• a new and Improved Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA), better BRIA oversight and governance, a refreshed Regulatory Review Group to provide independent expert advice, and a more strategic understanding of cumulative impact.
• Genuine partnership working; enabling the co-development of the New Deal for business principles, extensive outreach across government, and new engagement tools including a best practice policy cycle and an improved and developing curriculum for policy makers.
• An effective forum for business stakeholders, with a Ministerial chair, meeting to discuss priorities and asks in advance of Scottish Budgets (2024-25 and 2025-26) and the Programme for Government.
• A much clearer understanding of the Wellbeing Economy and how businesses can support an economy that is fair, green and growing; Business views have informed policy in relation to flexible working, health & work and Just Transition, and new support and guidance is available to help SMEs bid for public contracts.
• Improved understanding of business metrics along with better access to data for policy officials within government, linked to the new BRIA template and guidance.

6. A wealth of improvement activity has been undertaken but we know that we can achieve even more, and we will continue to drive forward the culture change that has begun in Government, improving work across all portfolios to consider the impact on business of key decisions.

7. To realise the Scottish Government’s four overarching priorities, we need thriving businesses and economic growth. Ongoing conscious action to maintain good relationships between government and business is critical to ensure we foresee any barriers to growth and have forward looking processes to achieve our objectives and mitigate adverse impacts.

8. In the next phase, we will continue to:

• Develop understanding and support Ministers to consider cumulative impact.
• Improve quality support, assurance, and scrutiny of policies.
• Ensure high quality partnership working and engagement.
• Develop our Better Regulation and reform agenda.
• Improve strategic engagement and communication with a wider range of business.