NICOLA Sturgeon sought to “refocus” and “refresh” her government’s agenda yesterday, with proposals to equip Scotland “for the next decade and beyond”.

While some of the announcements in the Programme for Government had been trailed – the scrapping of the one per cent pay cap for public sector workers and proposals to phase out petrol and diesel cars in the next 15 years – there were still a few surprises.

The First Minister dangled the prospect of a universal basic income, saying the Government would work with interested councils to investigate further the possibility of paying every person in Scotland a regular, unconditional sum of money.

There was also the announcement of a Scottish National Investment Bank, to take a “new approach” on capital investment.

On the possibility of another vote on the constitution, the SNP leader would only say her government would “consider again the issue of a referendum on independence when the terms of Brexit are clear”.

There was an Education Bill, which would see the most “radical change to how our schools are run that we have seen in the lifetime of devolution”, and would include transforming “the way teachers are recruited and educated throughout their careers” and giving headteachers “significant new powers”.

“Our clear purpose is to ensure a first-class education for all young people, no matter the disadvantages they face,” Sturgeon said. “That is my top priority and I recommit to it today.”

There was also the prospect of a change to income tax, with the SNP leader saying the “time is right” to see how Holyrood’s new powers on raising taxes could be used in a “responsible and progressive” way.

Ahead of the budget she said the Scottish Government would publish a paper analysing the “different options, including the proposals of the other parties across Parliament”.

It looks set to re-open the debate around a 50p higher rate of tax.

There was also good news for Scotland’s burgeoning movie scene, with the First Minister announcing an additional £10 million to bring screen development, production and growth funding to £20m a year, supporting the next generation of T2s and Outlanders.

Sturgeon said we were living in a “golden age of film and TV production” in Scotland, with considerable opportunities over the next decade.

On the environment, the SNP leader said she wants new petrol and diesel cars to be phased out in Scotland from 2032 – eight years earlier than the 2040 target set by the UK Government.

Another trailed promise was a national ginger bottle scheme, where consumers get deposits on drink bottles returned.

The Scottish Government will also provide direct funding for the feasibility stage of the Acorn project in St Fergus, looking at carbon capture and storage.

A UK government £1 billion competition to build technology that could absorb and dispose of carbon dioxide from power stations, it was scrapped in 2015 by then chancellor George Osborne, devastating the Aberdeenshire project. Yesterday, they welcomed the Scottish Government investment.

On health, there were plans to expand free personal care to those under 65 with terminal illnesses, the so-called Frank’s Law.

There were also plans to introduce new laws to make driving under the influence of drugs a criminal offence.

Perhaps the most controversial proposal, and one that will set up a battle between the SNP and the Tories, and the right-wing press, was the ambition to “extend the presumption against short-term sentences from three months to 12 months”.

The First Minister also confirmed legislation similar to the Turing’s Law proposed by former SNP MP John Nicolson in Westminster, which will automatically pardon gay men convicted of historical same-sex offences.

“This Bill will right a historic wrong and give justice to those who found themselves unjustly criminalised simply because of who they loved,” Sturgeon said.

To help tackle inequality, she announced proposals for a new £50 million fund for addressing child poverty, with the money to be available over five years.

In an attempt to tackle “period poverty”, where some low-income women can struggle to afford sanitary protection, Sturgeon said the Scottish Government would provide free access to such products for students in schools, colleges and universities, further to a pilot scheme in Aberdeen.

There were also plans to curb marketing of products high in fat or sugar.

She told MSPs: “The programme that I have set out today and the legislation is fresh, bold and ambitious, and because of that aspects of it will undoubtedly be controversial.

“That is inevitable – indeed it is necessary. No-one has ever built a better country by always taking the easy option.”

Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson described the SNP Programme for Government as a “programme to raise taxes and keep robbers out of the jail”.