First Minister John Swinney has unveiled his first programme for government since the Holyrood election, setting out a five-year plan for major public sector reform alongside a bus fares cut and a controversial supermarket price cap. The plans include mass mergers of quangos, councils and NHS boards, which Swinney called the "most radical reshaping of public services" since devolution, but opposition parties and business leaders have dismissed the package as gimmicks and empty promises, while trade unions have threatened to fight the reforms.

Key measures include cutting Scotland's 14 regional health boards to just two, merging ferries quangos, bringing Transport Scotland back into government, and consulting for three months on a new local government structure, though officials admit delivery could take up to five years. The £2 bus fares cap will extend across the west of Scotland from Monday, but will not cover the whole country until the end of this parliament in 2031. Swinney also pressed ahead with a food price cap on supermarket items despite his own government's consultation and an admission it could cause shortages, drawing criticism from Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay, who branded it a "Soviet-style" scheme, and Reform UK's Malcolm Offord, who likened it to "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic".