Party Policies Compare Democratic Unionist policies against Uk Independence Party policies

We favour having available to us the power to reduce the rate of corporation tax in the Province, subject to the precise terms not placing an intolerable burden on our budget. This would assist in improving our productivity compared with the rest of the United Kingdom especially the South East of England and being competitive.

Our goal is not be as competitive as the Irish Republic, but to be more competitive, so we would work towards a 10% rate.

In order to rebalance the Northern Ireland economy and promote the private sector, DUP Ministers will:

Support the creation of over 20,000 new jobs.

Strive to make Northern Ireland the best place in the UK to do business.

Seek to increase exports by 50% over the next decade by supporting first-time exporters and assisting companies to diversify into new markets.

Seek in the short-term to maximise job creation by actions such as providing financial support for start-ups and grant assistance in the agri-food sector, targeting knowledge processing and contact centre FDI, boosting funding and procurement opportunities for social enterprises and extending the Propel programme for export starts

Target over the course of the Assembly term more jobs in ICT, agri-food, financial services, health technology, tradable services, clean technology, business services, retail, tourism and construction.

Aim to expand aerospace, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and other high value advanced manufacturing.

Extend and improve the small business rates relief scheme.

Seek to build Northern Ireland's reputation internationally as a centre for creative industries.

Pursue banks to provide working capital and funds for growth to local businesses, demanding regular figures updating the levels of business lending including both renewals of facilities and new lending.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

The DUP would seek to:

Require a comprehensive review of sentencing policy to ensure it is effective in deterring crime, protecting the public and cutting reoffending.

The DUP will bring forward legislation for tougher sentences and make prison terms the norm for those who attack the elderly and vulnerable.

Seek to increase sentences for child sex offences, rape and sexual assault.

Establish a Victims' Charter placing victims at the heart of the justice process and ensuring proper communication and consultation from the PSNI and Public Prosecution Service with explanations for delays and failure to prosecute- reasons would have to be given for decisions to prosecute on lesser charges.

Extend to Northern Ireland the Sarah's Law provisions being practiced in England, allowing concerned parents to request whether individuals in contact with their child about whom they would have concerns, are on the Sex Offenders Register.

Prisoners should not be treated more favourably than law abiding citizens.

Amend self-defence legislation so householders are given greater protection and can only be prosecuted for use of force against intruders which is found to be disproportionate.

Produce a strategy to deal more effectively with white collar crime, ensuring that those who misappropriate or embezzle funds are properly pursued.

Introduce a website based on the CrimeMapper model across the water, so the public have accurate information about the level of crime in their neighbourhood.

Support use of wire tap evidence in court.

Establish a new police and fire service training centre.

Increase the proportion of time police officers spend on operational duties to levels comparable with the rest of the United Kingdom.

Limit the use of police speed cameras to accident blackspots.

Plans to introduce ID cards should be scrapped. They are too expensive and will not tackle terrorism or illegal immigration.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

We favour having available to us the power to reduce the rate of corporation tax in the Province, subject to the precise terms not placing an intolerable burden on our budget. This would assist in improving our productivity compared with the rest of the United Kingdom especially the South East of England and being competitive.

Our goal is not be as competitive as the Irish Republic, but to be more competitive, so we would work towards a 10% rate.

Assist the social economy through increased start-up packages, training and support with business plans and hosting an international conference on social enterprise.

Amend credit union legislation and promote microfinance initiatives.

Maintain the 30% cap on manufacturing rates.

Extend and improve the small business rates relief scheme.

Maximise the amount of revenue spend which can be transferred to capital for investment.

Double tourism revenue to £1 billion over the next decade.

Maximise benefits from the significant capital investment in tourism, particularly in 2012 with the Titanic and Ulster Covenant anniversaries and the opening of a new Giant's Causeway Visitor Centre, and Londonderry's Year as the UK's City of Culture in 2013.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

The DUP will increase investment in the early years, produce a roadmap for a single education system, continue to safeguard academic selection and ensure no-one is priced out of attending university.

Produce a comprehensive long-term plan for the education sector including a roadmap to create a single education system.

Introduce an Individual Education Plan for every pupil based on a simplified Pupil Profile.

Legislate to implement a Special Educational Needs strategy after overhaul of the outgoing Minister's proposals.

Review the Revised Curriculum with a view to giving principals and teachers more freedom to adapt their offering to suit the pupils' particular circumstances.

Assist unemployed teachers to take training modules permitting them to attain experience in the preschool sector or similarly in reading recovery schemes until they obtain a teaching post.

Rationalise immediately the five Education Boards into one, followed quickly by a single body subsuming the functions, assets and liabilities of Education Boards, the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, Staff Commission and Youth Council.

Continue to oppose any rise in student fees beyond the routine year-on-year inflationary uplifts.

Seek to have the cap on student numbers in Northern Ireland removed.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Aim to secure 40% of our energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020, assisting small scale renewable energy generation, ensuring simplified processes to secure approval for renewable projects, publishing a Northern Ireland Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy and seeking to establish the Province as a renewable manufacturing hub

Make our fair share of reductions in greenhouse gases, cutting emissions by 25% below 1990 levels by 2025.

Continue progress towards making the government estate carbon neutral.

Promote renewable heat working towards 10% of heat consumed coming from renewable sources by 2020.

Commence a Province-wide retrofit programme providing a range of energy efficiency measures, reducing carbon emissions and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.

Take advantage of the economic opportunities offered by a low carbon economy.

Support Research and Development in renewable and low carbon technologies.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

From the DUP Westminster Manifesto 2010:

The DUP opposes the UK entering the Euro zone. Giving up our national currency would mean surrendering a vital tool for running the British economy and an unacceptable loss of independence.

We also believe that the United Kingdom Government must do much more to oppose the continual power-grab exercised by the European Commission. We support the localisation of the Common Fisheries Policy which would see fishing policy controlled at a national or local level within the UK.

We believe that the UN target of spending 0.7% of Gross National Income on international aid by 2013 is a target which should be met. It is important however that this money is seen to be delivering the maximum possible benefits for those who are in most need. We believe there must be measurable targets put in place to ensure that aid is being put to the best and most efficient use.

It is important that UK interests are protected within the world and the DUP fully supports the rights of the Falkland Islands to self-determination.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Work to keep household bills at a minimum, ensuring that Northern Ireland continues to have the lowest bills anywhere in the UK.

The DUP will block additional water charges, limit any regional rate increase to inflation and cap district rates.

Explore the potential to create a website called FixOurStreetNI for residents to report problems with streetlights, drainage,waste collection, road maintenance, etc.

One poorly maintained property can drag an entire estate or area down so we will explore means for agencies to carry out any necessary work and be compensated retrospectively when individuals persistently fail to maintain acceptable standards.

Require car parks accessed by the public to have family parking spaces.

Conduct an inquiry into insurance costs- including car, contents and buildings insurance- in the Province compared with Great Britain, covering local insurance industry practice and the role of the legal sector.

Drive down fuel poverty in the short term to a level comparable with the rest of the United Kingdom.

Further roll out broadband connectivity throughout Northern Ireland and increase e-business activity.

Work towards ensuring affordable childcare Province-wide from 8am to 6pm from Monday to Friday.

Make greater use of the schools estate for childcare aiming for schools to be able to use childcare tax credits, and ensuring varied use of time including breakfast clubs,homework clubs, sport and vocational and skills training.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Cut the size of government, with Departments providing the policy and strategy framework within which services are delivered

.The DUP will work with other parties to create a settled society in Northern Ireland, realising savings through sharing and breaking down division.

We will continue to make Stormont better by delivering much needed reforms, working to reduce the number of MLAs and Government Departments.

The DUP will work to end division and bring unionists together to maximise unionism's strength and influence. We will seek to create a shared and united community in Northern Ireland where everyone has been the opportunity to succeed, ensuring the long-term Union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Consult on outlawing election posters or limiting their use in terms of numbers, distance from polling stations, commencement date, etc.

Press ahead rapidly with the reconfiguration of local government and transferring of extra powers from central Departments.

Amalgamate the Human Rights Commission, Equality Commission and the Office of the Children's Commissioner.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

The DUP will increase spending on health in real terms, ensure that resources are targeted on the front line through greater efficiency and productivity and expand cancer services.

We will prioritise preventative measures to improve public health.

Slash the excessive per capita spending on Departmental and administrative costs to the levels in the rest of the UK.

Reconfigure provision to shift the 25-30% of care currently carried out inappropriately in hospitals, into the community- patients must be treated in the right place at the right time by the right people, not over-relying on the most specialised and expensive services.

Have 80% of domiciliary care provided by charities and other nonstatutory organisations by 2015, releasing savings extending to tens of millions of pounds per year.

Allocate to public health an increasing percentage of the overall health budget with a view to increasing spend on health promotion and disease prevention beyond £100 million, to more than two and a half times the 2007 figure.

Increase investment in intermediate care and rehabilitation to treat more patients with chronic illnesses at home rather than requiring hospital admission.

Carry out at least one hundred more cardiac operations per year in Northern Ireland making savings from sending less patients to Dublin or Great Britain.

Explore means including fixed penalty notices to reduce drunkenness and violence in Accident and Emergency departments and throughout the health care system.

Oppose extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland.

Explore the potential for Northern Ireland to be included in the NHS Choices website which has provided a better service and saved close to £50 million in England.

Support measures to reduce alcohol consumption including an end to promotions such as ‘happy hours', banning the sale of alcohol below cost price and ensuring any introduction of minimum pricing is targeted at an appropriate level to impact on binge drinkers.

Encourage fast food outlets, restaurants, sandwich chains, cafes, public houses and company canteens to display calorie counts on menus.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

A DUP Social Development Minister would seek to:

Produce a comprehensive Homes and Communities strategy for Northern Ireland, agreed with the housing sector.

Assist first time buyers including through a graduate home loan scheme for those with degrees in subjects crucial to improving our economy such as STEM, finance and business.

Promote shared ownership schemes and provide tenants with greater opportunity to own or part-own their home, including greater flexibility in the proportion stake required for co-ownership.

Explore how funding to assist the Co-Ownership scheme could be increased as well as the establishment of a government backed loan scheme for first time buyers.

Place an increased focus on the housing needs of the vulnerable including the elderly and disabled, ensuring processes are more sympathetic to their particular needs.

Examine appropriate schemes to assist homeowners facing problems paying their mortgages and provide practical advice and support.

Produce a comprehensive, cross-Departmental homelessness strategy.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

The DUP supports measures to limit the number of people from overseas permitted to settle in the United Kingdom each year.

We support a points-based system similar to that in Australia which gives priority to those with skills we need in the UK.

We demand the discontinuation of the practice of submitting multiple new asylum applications in order to avoid deportation, and believe that the UK should only receive a fixed number of refugees from the UNHCR.

Plans to introduce ID cards should be scrapped. They are too expensive and will not tackle terrorism or illegal immigration.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Seek to reduce crippling Air Passenger Duty rates introduced by the UK Government which risk diverting business away from the Province to the Irish Republic and placing long-haul routes such as Belfast-New York under threat.

Continue to press the Westminster Government for a fair fuel duty stabiliser.

Invest in our roads and transport network,water and waste water, schools and youth services, health and social care as well as social and affordable housing.

Continue to minimise road casualties through road safety engineering, collision remedial schemes, traffic calming, school safety zones and improved pedestrian and cycle networks.

Promote increased usage of public transport and make best use of the new bus and train fleets.

Seek to ensure that the Belfast-Londonderry rail link has commuters arriving before 9am.

Ensure public transport and car parking issues are fully taken into account in planning determinations.

Seek to reduce crippling Air Passenger Duty rates introduced by the UK Government which risk diverting passengers away from the Province to the Irish Republic.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Fight the case with the Department for Work and Pensions that welfare reforms should not disproportionately impact on Northern Ireland in a negative way.

Pilot automatic payment of benefits.

Continue efforts to reduce the levels of poverty particularly child poverty.

Establish a Social Protection Fund with an initial allocation of £20 million for the first year to assist those in the most severe hardship.

Work towards all benefit applications being made online, removing the need to attend a benefits office and allowing staff to be relocated in one or two large centres.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

In the next four years the DUP will ensure that the Northern Ireland Executive supports the creation of over 20,000 news jobs, strive to make Northern Ireland the best place in the UK to do business, progressively work to reduce corporation tax to 10% and work towards ensuring affordable childcare provice-wide from 8am to 6pm.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Further develop relationships in India, China, South America, Canada and Russia.

Encourage firms from the Far East and elsewhere to locate European bases in Northern Ireland.

Produce a ten-year plan for showcasing Northern Ireland on the international stage in 2021, and incorporating a homecoming of the Northern Ireland diaspora.

Source: Democratic Unionist party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Cut the massive burden of EU red tape

Prevent big businesses deliberately delaying payments to smaller companies

Cut Business Rates by 20% for companies having premises with a total Rateable Value of less than £50,000

Support a credit insurance scheme to improve the financial security of small businesses

Make it easier for small and medium-size businesses to tender for public service contracts

Push for 30 minutes free parking in every high street and shopping parade.

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Prevent foreign criminals coming into the UK and deport those who commit crimes here

Scrap our opt-in to the European Arrest Warrant and uphold the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’

Reduce the number of territorial constabularies and Police and Crime Commissioners to cut costs and tackle serious crime

Prosecute all cases of adult sexual behaviour with minors

Take a zero-tolerance approach to unacceptable ‘cultural’ practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM)

Amend the licensing laws to lower the maximum stake on all Fixed Odds Betting Terminals from £100 to £2

Refuse to give criminals the vote

Insist those who wish to appeal against deportation do so from their home country

Decriminalise non-payment of the BBC licence fee and review its cost with a view to its reduction.

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Exempt all service personnel on duty overseas from income tax

Increase defence spending to 2% of GDP as required by our membership of NATO

Restore the armed forces to 2010 manpower levels and capability

Open a dedicated, fully-equipped military hospital to provide specialist services to armed forces personnel

Appoint a new Director of National Intelligence

Keep our Trident nuclear deterrent

Oppose the creation of the EU Army.

Appoint a new, dedicated Minister for Veterans, attached to the Cabinet Office

Issue a National Defence Medal to all veterans

Build 500 affordable rent houses every year for veterans

Build eight halfway house hostels for homeless veterans

Guarantee jobs in the police, prison and border services to ex-servicemen and women who have served for 12 years

Support ex-forces personnel who want to set up their own businesses

Issue a Veterans service card to ensure fast-track access to mental health services.

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Raise the personal tax allowance to at least £13,000, taking those on minimum wage out of tax altogether

Raise the threshold for paying 40% tax to £55,000 and introduce a new 30% intermediate rate on earnings between £45,300 and £55,000

Abolish inheritance tax

Increase the transferable tax allowance for married couples to £1,500

Ensure big corporations pay their fair share of tax

Remove VAT from listed building repairs and sanitary products.

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Ease teachers’ workloads by cutting down on assessments, data collection and appraisals

Scrap teachers’ performance-related pay

Abolish Key Stage 1 SAT tests at primary level

End sex education for primary school children

Bring back grammar schools and support a range of secondary schools including vocational, technical and specialist schools

Waive tuition fees for science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) subjects at university

Make First Aid training part of the national curriculum.

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Scrap the 2008 Climate Change Act and the EU’s Large Combustion Plant Directive

Support ‘fracking’ for shale gas

End subsidies for wind turbines and solar photovoltaic arrays

Support renewable energy where it can deliver electricity at competitive prices

Seek to rejuvenate the coal industry

Abolish ‘green levies’ to cut the cost of fuel bills

Force energy companies to end higher charges for pre-payment meters

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

An immediate referendum on whether the UK should be in or out of the European Union.

We would review all legislation and regulations from the EU (3,600 new laws since 2010) and remove those which hamper British prosperity and competitiveness.

We will extend to EU citizens the existing points-based system for time-limited work permits. Those coming to work in the UK must have a job to go to, must speak English, must have accommodation agreed prior to their arrival, and must have NHS-approved health insurance.

We would negotiate a bespoke trade agreement with the EU to enable our businesses to continue trading to mutual advantage.

UKIP will withdraw from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.

UKIP would not seek to remain in the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) or European Economic Area (EEA) while those treaties maintain a principle of free movement of labour, which prevents the UK managing its own borders.

UKIP will reverse the government’s opt-in to EU law and justice measures, including the European Arrest Warrant and European Investigation Order. We will replace the EAW with appropriate bi-lateral agreements.

UKIP will leave the EU and save at least £8bn pa in net contributions.

Students from the EU will pay the same student fee rates as International students.

Work permits will be permitted to fill skills gaps in the UK jobs market.

By leaving the EU, the UK will leave the Common Agricultural Policy. Outside the EU UKIP will institute a British Single Farm Payment for farms.

UKIP will leave the Common Fisheries Policy and reinstate British territorial waters. Foreign trawlers would have to apply for and purchase fishing permits to fish British waters when fish stocks have returned to sustainable levels.

We will repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a new British Bill of Rights. The interests of law-abiding citizens & victims will always take precedence over those of criminals.

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Honour existing childcare voucher and tax-free childcare schemes

Extend these existing schemes to informal, non-Ofsted registered childminders

Offer wrap-around childcare before and after school for every school-age child

Amend planning legislation to ensure more nurseries are built to expand childcare places

Give parents easy access to emergency childcare through their local authority

Legislate for an initial presumption of 50-50 shared parenting in child residency matters, and give grandparents visiting rights

Initiate a thorough review of childcare and child safeguarding systems.

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Continue to give UKIP Councillors the freedom to vote as they choose

Keep Council Tax as low as possible

Give local people the final say on major planning decisions in their area

Adopt a zero-tolerance approach to noisy or anti-social neighbours

Make the setting up of a traveller pitch without permission illegal

Reinstate weekly bin collections where they have been lost, if residents want them reinstated

Oppose the cabinet system of local governance and push for cross-party, collaborative committee systems

Provide best value for money for council tax payers by cutting council costs.

Give a national referendum on the issue of greatest importance to the British public every two years on the most popular petition with over two million signatures

Genuinely debate petitions gathering over 100,000 signatures in the House of Commons

Give voters real power to sack their MP, Councillor or other elected politician

Insist on English votes for English laws: only MPs for English constituencies will vote on laws affecting only England.

Introduce an Open Primaries Bill to ensure Parliamentary candidates need not be Westminster insiders

Give Commons’ Select Committees the power to approve or veto senior ministerial, civil service and quango appointments and public spending plans

Introduce a new proportional voting system that truly reflects the number of votes cast

End postal voting fraud by restricting postal votes to those with a valid reason to have one.

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Fund 20,000 more nurses, 8,000 more GPs and 3,000 more midwives

Invest an extra £1.5 billion into mental health and dementia services over the next five years

Scrap hospital parking charges

End ‘health tourism’ by making sure those ineligible for free NHS care pay for treatment

Replace Monitor and the CQC with powerful new County Health Boards to drive up standards.

Integrate health and social care and bring both under the control of the NHS

Increase social care funding in total by £5.2 billion between 2015 and 2020

Promise to invest any tax profits from ‘fracking’ into setting up a Sovereign Wealth Fund to pay for elderly care

Protect services such as day care centres, home care and Meals on Wheels

Abolish the practice of arranging home-care visits in 15-minute windows

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Protect the green belt

Bring empty homes back into use

Build one million homes on brownfield sites by 2020

Prioritise social housing for those with local connections to an area

Give local people the final say on major planning developments in their area

Restrict the ‘Right-to-Buy’ and ‘Help-to-Buy’ schemes to British nationals

Oppose the so-called ‘Mansion Tax.’

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Leave the EU and take back control of our borders

End immigration for unskilled jobs for a five-year period to re-balance our work economy

Introduce an Australian-style points-based immigration system to assess all potential migrants to Britain on a fair, ethical and equal basis

Tackle the problem of sham marriages

Introduce a new visa system for workers, visitors, students, families and asylum seekers

End access to benefits and free NHS treatment for new immigrants until they have paid tax and NI for five years

Require all visitors and new immigrants to the UK to have their own health insurance.

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Scrap HS2: this is an expensive, politically-driven vanity project for which there is no good business case. It will blight our countryside and not solve the problem of capacity

Campaign to re-open Manston airport to address the lack of airport capacity in the South East

Ensure speed cameras are used to improve road safety, not just to raise money

End road tolls wherever possible

Oppose ‘pay-as-you-go’ road charging schemes

Support British HGV drivers by charging foreign lorries extra to use our roads

Roll back the VED exemption for classic vehicles to 25 years.

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Support a lower cap on benefits

Crack down on benefit fraud

End welfare tourism with a five-year embargo on benefits for migrants

Stop child benefit being paid to children who don’t live here permanently and limit child benefit to two children for new claimants

Scrap the ‘bedroom tax’

End unfair ATOS-style work capability assessments and return the system and funding to GPs

Increase Carers’ Allowance to match Job Seekers’ Allowance - £572 more a year

We will also put 800 advisors into foodbanks to help those using them with additional problems such as debt, addiction, family breakdown and mental or physical health problems, and to offer employment and legal advice.

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Protect workers’ rights

Enforce the minimum wage

End the abuse of zero-hours contracts

Allow British businesses to choose to employ British workers first

Prevent access to EU schemes which encourage businesses to hire foreign workers

Scrap EU directives which restrict the British economy and go against our work ethos.

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.

Take back our vacant seat at the World Trade Organisation

Seek to establish free trade agreements across the globe

Negotiate a bespoke UK-EU trade deal

Join the ranks of over 60 prosperous, independent countries that have profitable, mutually beneficial trade relationships with the European Union.

Consult Parliament before committing our armed forces and taxpayers’ money to combat situations

Protect the British sovereignty and territorial integrity of Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands

Foster closer ties with the Anglosphere

Put our faith in trading with our neighbours as a sovereign nation as the best way to avoid conflict

Encourage peace efforts in the Middle East and support a peaceful two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Cut the overseas aid budget from 0.7% to 0.2% of GNI, on a par with the USA

Continue to spend at least £4 billion annually on current figures (more than Spain and Italy combined), prioritising clean water and sanitation, healthcare, innoculation and emergency aid programmes

Remove trade barriers to provide sustainable livelihoods for the world’s poorest people

Close the Department for International Development and merge its essential functions into the Foreign Office.

Source: Uk Independence Party party website, existing manifesto or officially-published policies.