Nicola Sturgeon has pledged to increase spending on mental health, low-carbon vehicles, schools and hospitals as she unveiled a low-key legislative agenda.

The first minister said the programme, based around 12 new bills, would build on “radical” changes announced last year, but it was roundly attacked by people across the political spectrum as tepid and uninspiring.

Sturgeon said her government would again focus on increasing Scotland’s health and wealth, as she sought to shift public attention from the controversy over sexual harassment allegations against her predecessor Alex Salmond.

This would include £250m extra over four years to improve mental health treatment for children, spending up to £7.5bn a year on new roads, schools and hospitals by 2026, and another £12m towards supporting ultra-low emission cars and buses.

Shortly before Sturgeon addressed Holyrood, an official survey of Scottish households revealed public confidence in key services had fallen last year to the lowest level since the survey series began in 2007.

The poll found 52% of Scottish adults were satisfied with transport, schools and health services, compared with 66% in 2001 and 57% in 2007, fuelling opposition criticism of the Scottish government’s performance.

Ruth Davidson described the programme for government as ‘not so much a relaunch as a retread’. Photograph: Ken Jack/Corbis/Getty Images

Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, said that this time last year, Sturgeon had pledged 15 new bills but passed only two. Meanwhile, key pledges such as new schools legislation and merging transport policing with Police Scotland had been dropped.

“Great ambitions, but remarkably little legislation has happened,” she said. “Not so much a relaunch as a retread.”

Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, said the proposals were light on ideas and substance, and after nearly 12 years in power, Sturgeon’s government had run out of ideas. “Based on this programme, this government’s sell-by date is well passed,” he told her.

Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leader, said Sturgeon had also failed to address rising inequality in Scotland or respond to widespread demands to scrap testing of primary one school pupils. “Where is the vitality? Where is the driving force?” he asked the first minister.

Sturgeon insisted her government was focusing its attention on future-proofing Scotland against the effects of Brexit and building on evidence that the economy was improving.

It would set up a promised Scottish national investment bank and find new infrastructure funding models to reach record levels of spending on new public buildings. Another £600m would be spent on ensuring every part of Scotland would have fast broadband. A further £20m would go towards increasing exports.

Answering longstanding complaints from the Lib Dems and Labour, Sturgeon admitted in her foreword to the programme that the government had failed to properly address the underfunding of child mental health services until now.

She told Holyrood it would spend £60m to employ 250 extra nurses and 350 more mental health counsellors for schools, and another 80 counsellors for universities and colleges, along with new fast-track specialist mental health services for young people.

In other measures, Sturgeon said her government would:



Allow EU citizens to vote in Scottish and local elections.



Embed the UN convention on the rights of the child into Scottish law.



Set up a new deep sea marine reserve.



Increase spending on new affordable homes to £750m.

Bring forward the introduction of new baby grants for low-income mothers to December.

Sturgeon said she wanted to accelerate the shift to a low-carbon economy, to ensure no new petrol and diesel cars were sold in Scotland by 2032. To reach this target, £15m would be spent on electric charging points and a low-carbon transport loan fund would be increased to £20m.