Local Government and Communities Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Official Report 545KB pdf

Subordinate Legislation

Non-Domestic Rates (Relief for New and Improved Properties) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2019 (SSI 2019/116)

Item 3 is consideration of Scottish statutory instrument 2019/116. I refer members to committee paper 3. The instrument amends SSI 2019/40, which we considered on 20 March. That SSI miscounted by one the number of days in the current financial year, meaning that the formula that it brought into law was slightly wrong. The sole purpose of this instrument is to correct that. The instrument is laid under the negative procedure, which means that its provisions will come into force unless the Parliament agrees to a motion to annul it. No motions to annul have been lodged.

The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the amended instrument at its meeting on 23 April and noted that it did not respect the usual requirement to be laid at least 28 days before coming into force. However, the committee considered the reasons for this that were given by the Scottish Government to be acceptable under the circumstances. The committee made no other recommendations on the instrument. Do members have any comments?

We should note for the record that both the DPLR Committee and this committee overlooked the fact that the number was wrong. There should be a mild rebuke for both committees.

Could we strike that from the record, please? [Laughter.]

If there are no other significant comments, I invite the committee to agree that it does not wish to make any recommendations in relation to this instrument. Are we agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

That concludes the public part of today’s meeting; I move the meeting into private session.