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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.

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Question reference: S6W-12621

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 7 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the reasons are for the reported removal of average speed cameras on the A9 between the Keir and Broxden roundabouts.

Question reference: S6W-12295

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 1 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what budget it has allocated for the rates relief available under the Non-Domestic Rates (Reverse Vending Machine Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 in each year since it came into effect.

Eligibility for non-domestic rates reliefs is set out in legislation and it is for local authorities to administer reliefs to eligible properties in accordance with that legislation. As such, the Scottish Government does not set aside allocations for individual non-domestic rates reliefs, but rather decisions on non-domestic rates reliefs, for example Reverse Vending Machine relief, are taken as part of the annual budget process, using Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) forecasts of the total revenues raised net of relief costs.

The SFC forecast that the Reverse Vending Machine relief would cost less than £1 million in the 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years. The SFC forecasts are available on their website.

Data on the actual cost of non-domestic rates reliefs is released periodically as part of Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics publications available on the Scottish Government’s website.

Question reference: S6W-12294

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 1 December 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has received in the last year regarding the rates relief available under the Non-Domestic Rates (Reverse Vending Machine Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2020.

Question reference: S6W-12293

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 29 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its Emergency Budget Review, when it anticipates the joint taskforce with COSLA, regulatory agencies and business will convene, and when it anticipates it will conclude its work.

Scottish Government Officials are working towards holding the first meeting of the Joint Regulatory Taskforce as soon as possible and aim to hold before the end of 2022. Communications to key stakeholders to facilitate this will be issued shortly.

The Taskforce will also support and drive early progress towards meeting our commitments in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation to review and improve the process of developing, implementing and reviewing regulation to meet our economic and societal aims. Reviewing regulatory burdens on business will be a critical component of this work and we will seek to balance the essential role that regulation plays on driving innovation and achieving economic, societal and environmental goals with the concerns that businesses have expressed about the impact of new regulations during the cost crisis.

While the Taskforce was announced as part of the Emergency Budget Review in response to the ongoing cost crisis, it is also expected to help support the work towards the longer term goals. Therefore, there is no set date for the conclusion of its work but the terms of reference will be subject to ongoing review to ensure the group continues to be in the best position to support the delivery of these goals.

Question reference: S6W-11844

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 18 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has recently undertaken a review of devolved regulations and regulatory burdens affecting businesses, and, if so, when it will publish the conclusions of this work.

As part of the response to the cost crisis, the Scottish Government has engaged closely with business organisations, industry groups and individual businesses to hear their concerns during this significantly challenging time.

As noted in the Emergency Budget Statement on 2 October, this crisis is unprecedented; since the advent of devolution Scotland has not faced a situation that has combined the significant reduction in the Scottish Government's spending power with the massive impact of the cost crisis on households, businesses, public services and the third sector. We are constrained by both the limitations on our powers and on our budgets. This is why the Scottish Government has consistently called for more support from the UK Government to businesses.

Nevertheless, we committed to looking at what we do have devolved competence over, such as devolved regulation. That is why the Deputy First Minister announced that we will be establishing a Joint Regulatory Taskforce with COSLA, local authorities, regulatory agencies and businesses. This will support and drive early progress towards meeting our commitments in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation to review and improve the process of developing, implementing and reviewing regulation to meet our economic and societal aims. Reviewing regulatory burdens on business will be a critical component of this work and we will seek to balance the essential role that regulation plays on driving innovation and achieving economic, societal and environmental goals with the concerns that businesses have expressed about the impact of new regulations during the cost crisis. The intention is to bring members together as soon as possible, hopefully before the end of the year.

Question reference: S6W-11911

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 04 November 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 18 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Scottish National Party manifesto commitment, what the cost would be of bringing the higher non-domestic property rate into line with that in England, broken down by industry sector.

The 2023 revaluations in Scotland and England will for the first time have different tone dates following the Scottish Government’s acceptance of the independent Barclay Review of Non-Domestic Rates’ recommendation to move to three yearly revaluations and a one-year tone date. This inevitably results in direct comparison between the two systems being less meaningful than in the past with Scottish rateable values more accurately reflecting contemporary market circumstances.

The Scottish Budget will set out non-domestic rates measures including the poundage, supplements and reliefs that will apply in 2023-24 based upon draft values which will be published for the first time on 30 November 2022 but it will only be possible to accurately calculate the impact of different tax rates and supplements on individual sectors when final rateable values are published on 1 April 2023.

Question reference: S6W-10698

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 28 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many commercial properties in each local authority area are subject to the higher property rate in 2022-23, broken down by business sector.

Table 1 presents the number of properties with a liability for the higher property rate before reliefs are awarded, broken down by local authority and property class. Table 1 has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre under Bib No. 63637.

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, and does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property.

Question reference: S6F-01387

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 26 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2022

To ask the First Minister what the response has been from stakeholder groups regarding the Scottish Government’s proposals to introduce a freeze on rent.

Question reference: S6W-10699

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much it estimates will be raised from the higher property rate in 2022-23, broken down by business sector.

Table 1 presents the gross estimated income from the higher property rate, by property class.

The figures presented are gross amounts and do not take account of reductions in liability due to reliefs awarded in 2022-23. This is due to the application of a £27,500 cap per ratepayer on retail, hospitality and leisure relief in 2022-23 which means that it is not possible for the Scottish Government to robustly estimate the breakdown of net figures by property class.

Figures in Table 1 are broken down by property class as 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, and may not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property.

Table 1: Estimated gross HPR income, by property class in 2022-23

Property Class	Gross HPR income (£)
Shops	23,480,000
Public Houses	819,000
Offices	14,211,000
Hotels	5,197,000
Industrial Subjects	18,678,000
Leisure, Entertainment, Caravans etc.	3,912,000
Garages and Petrol Stations	749,000
Cultural	883,000
Sporting Subjects	238,000
Education and Training	12,372,000
Public Service Subjects	5,762,000
Communications	502,000
Quarries, Mines, etc.	203,000
Petrochemical	2,791,000
Religious	110,000
Health and Medical	4,556,000
Other	2,259,000
Care Facilities	1,374,000
Advertising	74,000
Statutory Undertaking	23,847,000
All	122,017,000

Source: Scottish Assessors’ Valuation Roll as at 1 July 2022.

Figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000.

Question reference: S6W-10702

Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities are (a) using and (b) seeking to use their powers under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 to reduce business rates in 2022-23.

The administration of the non-domestic rates system, including the award of reliefs, is a matter for local authorities. In the Non-domestic rates income - provisional contributable amount returns, provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government at the start of 2022-23, no local authority indicated that they expect to award rates reliefs under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 in 2022-23.