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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6W-32003

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 19 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it reportedly only gave the Scottish Fiscal Commission an eight-day notice period of its plans regarding the future in Scotland of the two-child cap on benefits.

The Scottish Government keeps a range of measures under consideration as it develops and finalises its Budget. Final decisions are communicated with the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) as soon as is practicable. The Scottish Fiscal Commission is undertaking work to cost the proposal to mitigate the impact of the two-child cap in Scotland for 2026-27. The SFC plan to publish their supplementary costings on 7 January 2025.

Question reference: S6W-32466

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties will be subject to the basic property rate poundage in 2025-26, broken down by (a) industry sector and (b) local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-32467

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it expects to raise from each (a) industry and (b) business sector from the basic property rate in 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-32451

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 15 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32009 by Ivan McKee on 17 December 2024, and in relation to the "inflationary increase" in his response, how it has historically adjusted business rate poundage in relation to inflation since 1999.

Question reference: S6O-04162

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has been made aware of the identity of the police officers investigating Operation Branchform, and, if so, when.

Question reference: S6W-32000

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, after taking account of the expected in-year transfers and budget revisions, what difference there will be between local government funding provided in 2024-25 and 2025-26.

As outlined in Table 4.12 of the Scottish Budget, on a like with like basis, the Local Government Settlement will be £15,035.2 million following the conclusion of the Spring Budget Revision 2025-26 compared with £14,027.1 million following the conclusion of the Spring Budget Revision 2024-25. It is therefore estimated that the difference in local government funding provided in 2024-25 and 2025-26 will be £1,008.1 million.

As with all previous years, any unanticipated transfers in year will also be given effect at the relevant budget revision and processed in the Local Government Finance Order 2026-27.

Question reference: S6W-32002

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) assessment it has made and (b) consultation it has carried out regarding what behavioural responses might arise in response to the proposed decision to freeze three of the income tax bands in its draft Budget 2025-26.

The Scottish Government relies on independent forecasts produced by the Scottish Fiscal Commission in arriving at policy decisions on Income Tax. These forecasts include the impact of any possible behaviour change that may result from policy decisions.

The impact of Income Tax policy decisions taken at the 2025-26 Scottish Budget on taxpayers and households is presented in the following publications:

Scottish Income Tax Factsheet: Income Tax Policy Proposal: Scottish Budget 2025-26 - Scottish Income Tax 2025 to 2026: factsheet - gov.scot
Distributional analysis of the Scottish Budget: Scottish Budget 2025 to 2026: distributional analysis of the Scottish Budget - gov.scot

Regarding consultation, in advance of the Scottish Budget, the Scottish Government conducts annual research on public attitudes to tax.

This research also includes information on where people find information on tax and their knowledge of the tax system. The information which has been collected is available online: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2025-26-pre-budget-engagement-summary/pages/1/

This year, we also conducted a broad programme of business engagement on tax policy, used to inform the Tax Strategy, which gave businesses the opportunity to express their views regarding behavioural responses to Scottish Income Tax policy.

Question reference: S6W-31999

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will increase the local government budget through in-year transfers in 2025-26 and, if so, (a) to what extent and (b) from what other budget areas.

The Scottish Government routinely increases the Local Government budget in-year, including through transfers from other portfolios. The anticipated transfers for 2025-25 are as shown in Table 4.12 of the Scottish Budget and indicate that at least £1,438.3 million of resource and £25 million of capital will be transferred into the General Revenue and General Capital grants at the 2025-26 Autumn or Spring Budget Revisions. Further funding outwith the Local Government Settlement is outlined in Table 4.15 and paid directly by the relevant portfolio.

As with all previous years, any unanticipated transfers in year will also be given effect at the relevant budget revision and processed in the Local Government Finance Order 2026-27.

As outlined in Tables 4.12 and 4.15, it is anticipated that most Scottish Government portfolios will transfer additional funding to Local Government in 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-32006

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the level 4 tables that were published in conjunction with its draft Budget 2025-26 budget, for what reason it considers "£1.5 billion of ABR transfers processed" to be an "explanation of significant changes from previous year".

The Level 4 tables that were published with the draft Budget 2025-26 provide a summary of the changes from the previous year but it is not practical to list the full detail of all the changes associated with the Local Government Settlement, particularly where that detail is already available to the Scottish Parliament.

The specific details of the £1.5 billion of Local Government transfers processed at the Autumn Budget Revision 2024-25 are published in Schedule 3.1 of the Autumn Budget Revision 2024-25: supporting document.

The Finance and Public Administration Committee recommended that the Budget (Scotland) Act 2024 Amendment Regulations 2024, which give effect to the Autumn Budget Revision, should be agreed at their meeting on 12 November 2024. The regulations were subsequently approved by the Scottish Parliament on 4 December 2024.

Question reference: S6W-31996

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 17 December 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many properties in 2025-26 will be subject to the intermediate property rate, broken down by (a) industry sector and (b) local authority area.

Table 1 shows the number of properties liable for the Intermediate Property Rate by property class as at 1 October 2024. Table 2 shows the number of properties liable for the Intermediate Property Rate by council area as at 1 October 2024.

The Scottish Government does not hold property-level data on industry sectors. “Property class” is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property, but may not necessarily accurately reflect the actual use of a property.

Figures are rounded to the nearest 10, and may not sum due to rounding.

Table 1: Number of properties liable for the Intermediate Property Rate, by property class

Source: Scottish Assessors’ Valuation Roll, as at 1 October 2024

Property class	Number of properties
Shops	2,140
Public houses and restaurants	420
Offices	1,750
Hotels	380
Industrial subjects	2,430
Leisure, entertainment, caravans, etc.	480
Garages and petrol stations	200
Cultural	100
Sporting subjects	50
Education and training	720
Public service subjects	500
Communications	40
Quarries, mines, etc.	50
Petrochemical	10
Religious	90
Health and medical	260
Other	180
Care facilities	500
Advertising	20
Statutory undertaking	150
All	10,440

Table 2: Number of properties liable for the Intermediate Property Rate, by council area

Source: Scottish Assessors’ Valuation Roll, as at 1 October 2024

Council area	Number of properties
Aberdeen City	840
Aberdeenshire	480
Angus	120
Argyll and Bute	150
City of Edinburgh	1,510
Clackmannanshire	50
Dumfries and Galloway	220
Dundee City	320
East Ayrshire	150
East Dunbartonshire	110
East Lothian	130
East Renfrewshire	60
Falkirk	200
Fife	550
Glasgow City	1,660
Highland	590
Inverclyde	90
Midlothian	170
Moray	150
Na h-Eileanan Siar	50
North Ayrshire	160
North Lanarkshire	510
Orkney Islands	40
Perth and Kinross	270
Renfrewshire	320
Scottish Borders	180
Shetland Islands	60
South Ayrshire	170
South Lanarkshire	430
Stirling	200
West Dunbartonshire	130
West Lothian	400
Scotland	10,440