New Deal for Business Group: final progress report

New Deal for Business and Group

The New Deal for Business (New Deal) was a 24-month programme, with an 18-month implementation period, designed to bring about a transformation in policy making to improve the Government’s relationship with the business community. New Deal was part of a series of steps set out by the former First Minister Humza Yousaf MSP in his “New Leadership, A Fresh Start for Scotland” speech on 18 April 2023.^[1] New Deal and Group’s inception followed the Coronavirus Pandemic and Energy Cost Crisis, which created challenges for economies around the globe. Scottish businesses faced tough conditions and there was concern that some Scottish Government policy decisions were being made without a full understanding of their overall impact on business, placing burdens on industry, and compounding the economic challenges.

New Deal’s aim was to kickstart new ways of working across government, and support better engagement, partnership working and improved use of evidence, where government decisions impact on business. It was built on collaboration with business representatives to achieve common goals. The central principle was that better policy outcomes would be delivered by working with business to develop, design and deliver government policies that impact on the operations of business and that business success is critical to Scotland's success.

The Group was established, initially co-chaired by Dr Poonam Malik and Neil Gray MSP, then Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy and Fair Work. The Group first met on 17 May 2023. Five Subgroups fed into the main group, four of which were chaired by a lead from Industry, with the remaining group, on Non-Domestic Rates chaired by a Minister. The Subgroups enabled representatives from the wider business community, with lived experience, to produce recommendations and an implementation plan within the first six months. New Deal policy officials also undertook early engagement across portfolios to understand how policy leads were engaging with business in their work.

The Group’s progress and recommendations report^[2] was published in June 2023 and the former First Minister accepted the report and its recommendations^[3] in full. Delivery began over the summer months.