Bills and Laws

Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill

The Bill aims to allow a visitor levy, a type of fee or tax, to be charged on overnight stays in some types of accommodation. Section 4 of the Bill explains what types of accommodation these could be. This means that a certain amount of money would be paid to the local authority every time someone stayed overnight in accommodation like a hotel, bed and breakfast or holiday cottage (unless it is the place where the person usually lives). Each local authority would be able to decide if it wanted to introduce a charge and what the level of the charge should be.

The Bill is at Stage 3

Stage 1 - General principles

Committees examine the Bill and gather views. They produce reports before MSPs debate the Bill in the Chamber. MSPs then decide on the purpose (“general principles”) of the Bill.

The Bill ended Stage 1 on 16 January 2024

Committee Examination

The lead committee for this Bill is the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Find out more about this committee

Submit your views

The Scottish Government has proposed a new law which would allow local authorities to introduce an additional charge when someone pays for overnight accommodation.

MSPs on the Scottish Parliament’s Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee are looking at the details of the proposals, and want to know what people think about them.

Knowing your views will help them think about ways that could improve the proposed law, and whether the draft Bill should be passed into law by the whole Parliament.

The call for views closed on the 15 September 2023.

You can read the responses

SPICe has produced a summary of written submissions.

You can read the summary of submissions (512KB, pdf) posted 25 October 2023

Your Priorities

In addition to the Call for Views above the Committee also produced a digital consultation tool inviting people to share their views about the potential introduction of a visitor levy.

The call for views closed on the 15 September 2023.

Read the responses

The Parliament’s Participation and Communities Team has produced a summary of online forum submissions.

You can read the summary of submissions (3MB, pdf) posted 26 October 2023

On 4 October 2023, Parliament agreed motion S6M-10730, that consideration of the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill at stage 1 be completed by 19 January 2024.

Who spoke to the lead committee in the Parliament

MSPs met with people in committee meetings to discuss what the Bill will do.

Minutes of 20 June 2023
Minutes of 3 October 2023 (in private)
Minutes of 24 October 2023
Minutes of 31 October 2023
Minutes of 7 November 2023
Minutes of 14 November 2023
Minutes of 12 December 2023 (in private)
Minutes of 19 December 2023 (in private)

The Parliament’s Participation and Communities Team held five separate community meetings across Scotland with the support of community organisations.

You can read a summary of the meetings (590KB, pdf) posted 21 November 2023

The Participation and Communities Team also organised a community meeting in Aviemore.

You can read a note of the meeting (208KB, pdf) posted 26 October 2023