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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-29415

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 12 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the gross value added (GVA) by the hospitality sector to the economy has been in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S6W-29420

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 02 September 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much revenue has been received through non-domestic rates from the hospitality sector in each year since 1999.

Non-domestic rates are administered by local councils, and the Scottish Government does not routinely hold information on the amounts actually paid by individual businesses or properties. However, we are able to estimate the amounts some property types would have been liable for in some years where individual property level relief data has been collected nationally.

Table 1 presents estimated historic rateable values and estimates of net non-domestic rates income for hotels, public houses, and restaurants. Property level reliefs data, and therefore net income estimates, for years before 2012-13, and for 2014-2015, 2017-2018, and 2023-2024 are not available, and are not yet available for 2024-2025.

Hospitality premises are identified by property classes “public houses and restaurants” and “hotels”. 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. There may be properties within those classes which are not actually used for hospitality, and properties within other classes which are used for hospitality. Rateable values are as at 1 April in each financial year, and do not take into account any subsequent changes, even if backdated. A revaluation occurred in 2017-2018, and in 2023-2024. Reliefs information is derived from councils’ billing data, as at end April 2012, 1 October 2013, 8 October 2015, 5 October 2016, 1 June 2018, 31 May 2019, 1 July 2020, 1 June 2021, and 1 July 2022. The relief percentages reported in these billing data snapshots are applied to the gross income estimates based on rateable values on 1 April in each year to derive the net estimates. Net income in 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 was affected by the Retail, Hospitality, and Leisure (RHL) relief introduced in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. RHL relief awarded in 2022-2023 is not included, as this relief was not reported on the 2022 billing snapshot. Figures are rounded to the nearest £100,000.

Table 1: Total rateable value and estimated net NDR income related to hotels, public houses, and restaurants

Financial year	Rateable value	Net income
2012-2013	296,200,000	123,600,000
2013-2014	292,100,000	126,100,000
2014-2015	289,700,000	[not available]
2015-2016	296,200,000	133,300,000
2016-2017	299,800,000	138,500,000
2017-2018	402,500,000	[not available]
2018-2019	410,200,000	185,100,000
2019-2020	413,500,000	185,000,000
2020-2021	404,200,000	8,100,000
2021-2022	395,800,000	38,300,000
2022-2023	399,600,000	182,600,000

Question reference: S6W-28938

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 09 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 9 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the scope of the role of Transport Scotland, including any duplication of (a) responsibility and (b) funding in the period (i) before and (ii) after the new structures were put in place regarding the nationalisation of ScotRail.

Question reference: S6O-03685

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the return has been on any anticipated community, biodiversity and environmental outcomes resulting from the £17.6 million public purchase of Glen Prosen by Forestry and Land Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-28811

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 3 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will grant Scotland’s Rural College taught degree awarding powers through secondary legislation for its veterinary training programme, and, if so, when.

Question reference: S6W-28810

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Graeme Dey on 3 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) will be granted taught degree awarding power through secondary legislation, and, if so, within what timeframe.

Question reference: S6O-03662

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 August 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has allocated to local authorities whose housing stock and former housing stock requires demolition and rebuilding due to the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.

Question reference: S6W-28939

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 19 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the economic value of a new train fleet procurement programme for ScotRail.

Question reference: S6W-28940

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 August 2024
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 19 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has consented to Transport Scotland issuing a notice for the procurement of new rolling stock for ScotRail, and, if it is not the case, when it expects to do so.

Question reference: S6W-28583

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Natalie Don on 7 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27078 Natalie Don on 9 May 2024, in which it indicated its expectation that data on the scale, uptake and delivery models of breakfast provision across Scotland, both at local authority and schools' level, would be submitted to the Scottish Government in June 2024, whether it has received this data, and, if this is not the case, what the reasons are for the delay in the data being provided, and when the Scottish Government will report on the next stages.

The Scottish Government has been working with AssistFM and Improvement Service to map existing breakfast provision across Scotland, including a survey to all primary and special schools to understand the scale and uptake of provision.

A report with the findings from the mapping exercise was submitted to the Scottish Government in June 2024. The findings are being used to inform the government’s approach and we will report any decisions made about next steps once the data has been fully considered.