10 years of the SNP: key pledges

Here are four key policy pledges the SNP has achieved during its 10 years in government - and four it has failed to implement.

Achieved policies:

:: A referendum on independence.

In 2011, the SNP manifesto stated: We think the people of Scotland should decide our nation's future in a democratic referendum and opinion polls suggest that most Scots agree. We will, therefore, bring forward our Referendum Bill in this next Parliament.''

The party's majority win in the Holyrood election that year meant a referendum was held on September 18, 2014, but Scots voted by 55% to 45% in favour of remaining in the UK.

:: The abolition of fees for Scottish students studying at Scottish universities.

MSPs passed legislation to abolish the graduate endowment paid by students north of the border after completing their degrees in February 2008, nine months after the SNP came to power.

Alex Salmond, the first minister at the time, later hailed the move as his government's biggest achievement'' and a monument featuring his words -The rocks will melt with the sun before I allow tuition fees to be imposed on Scottish students'' - has been installed at Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University.

:: The council tax freeze.

The SNP's 2011 Holyrood manifesto pledged: We will freeze the council tax throughout the next Parliament, enabling households to keep more of the money they earn.''

This was a continuation of a policy introduced in 2008-09 in the SNP's then finance secretary John Swinney's first budget and which continued until April 2017. At that time, ministers reformed the charge and allowed councils to increase bills for householders by up to 3%.

:: One thousand more police officers.

The SNP manifesto in 2007 promised to increase officer numbers by 1,000, and although opposition politicians were sceptical about whether it could be achieved, in June 2009 statistics showed Scotland had a total of 17,278 officers - up from 16,234 from 2007.

However concerns have been raised about whether the pledge - which was repeated in 2011 - resulted in a reduction in police civilian staff, and the SNP did not include the commitment in its manifesto for the 2016 election.

Unimplemented policies:

:: Replacing the council tax with a local income tax.

In 2007, the SNP pledged to scrap council tax and introduce a fairer system based on ability to pay''. However as a minority administration, it failed to win the necessary support from other parties to make the change and in February 2009 then finance secretary John Swinney was forced to abandon the proposal.

:: Axing student debt.

In a bold move, the 2007 manifesto not only included a commitment to abolish the graduate endowment fee paid by students after completing their degrees, but the nationalists also promised a policy of removing the burden of the debt repayments owed to the Student Loans Company by Scottish domiciled and resident graduates''.

Reports suggested the cost of such a move could have been up to #2 billion and the pledge was never met. Figures from the Student Loans Company in June 2016 showed the average debt of those who graduated in 2015 was #10,500, up from #9,410 the previous year.

:: Cutting class sizes for pupils in the first three years of school.

Before being elected in 2007, the SNP pledged to reduce the number of children in P1-P3 classes to a maximum of 18.

But in September 2009, then education secretary Fiona Hyslop announced a legal limit of 25 pupils per class for P1.

:: Grants for first-time buyers.

An eye-catching commitment in the 2007 manifesto was the proposal for a first-time buyers' grant of £2,000, to help with the costs and outlays of buying a home.

It was never implemented.