- Asked by: Gillian Martin, MSP for Aberdeenshire East, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 September 2022
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2022
To ask the First Minister how the recent fall in the value of sterling will affect the finances of the Scottish Government.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2022
- Asked by: Douglas Ross, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 September 2022
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2022
Question to be taken in Chamber.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2022
- Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 September 2022
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2022
Question to be taken in Chamber.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2022
- Asked by: Emma Roddick, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 September 2022
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 27 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the UK Government's fiscal statement last week.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 27 September 2022
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 September 2022
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 27 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to promote participation in Scotland’s Climate Week 2022, which runs from 26 September to 2 October.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 27 September 2022
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 26 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what it plans to do with the £5 million that it previously committed to the Islands Bond scheme, and whether it will be spent on measures that aim to tackle the depopulation of islands.
Answer
The £300,000 allocated to the Islands Bond this financial year will now be used to shape a range of tests to help inform policy in an islands context, based on the feedback gathered through our engagement on the Islands Bond since October 2021, (including meeting over 100 island residents across 12 island communities in spring 2022).
These Practical Policy Tests (PPTs) will help to inform the development of our action plan to address depopulation as set out in our 2019 National Islands Plan, and also help to inform our future funding requirements so that we can tackle the depopulation challenges across our islands.
This work complements the £8.3 million provided to implement the National Islands Plan in the current financial year. This continues our record of delivering significant investment in key island-based projects, such as our £1.3 million contribution towards the rebuild of the Fair Isle Bird Observatory, and the £550K transformational Kerrera Road project.
Annual budgets will continue to be set through the annual parliamentary budget Bill process and the annual budget will be based on the latest fiscal information.
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many times rates relief has been (a) applied for and (b) awarded under the Non-Domestic Rates (Reverse Vending Machine Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 in (i) 2020-21, (ii) 2021-22 and (iii) 2022-23 to date, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
As at 1 July 2022 (latest available data), no entries of reverse vending machines had been made to the Valuation Roll, therefore no relief under the Non-Domestic Rates (Reverse Vending Machine Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 has been awarded.
The Valuation Roll is maintained by the independent Scottish Assessors.
Information on applications for rates relief is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) higher property rate and (b) large business rates supplement have been in each
of the last 15 years, broken down by how much tax revenue this generated.
Answer
Table 1 shows the estimated net income from the large business supplement in 2019-20. Figures for 2019-20 and earlier are available in the answer to S5W-25592, available at: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers/question?ref=S5W-25592 . Table 1 updates the previously given figure for 2019-20 with more recent data, which was not available at the time of the original answer.
Table 2 shows the estimated gross and net income from the higher property rate since 2020-21. It is not possible for the Scottish Government to robustly estimate the net income in 2022-23, due to the application of a £27,500 cap per ratepayer on retail, hospitality and leisure relief, therefore only the gross figure is given.
Table 1: Net income from the large business supplement
Year | 2019-20 |
Estimated net income from the large business supplement | 125,878,000 |
Large business supplement (pence) | 2.6 |
Large business supplement threshold | 51,000 |
Income figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Data: Scottish Assessors’ Valuation Roll, local authority billing information. | |
Table 2: Gross and net income from the higher property rate
Year | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
Estimated net income from the higher property rate | 80,648,000 | 93,250,000 | [not available] |
Estimated gross income from the higher property rate | 123,260,000 | 121,745,000 | 122,017,000 |
Higher property rate (in pence, in addition to the poundage) | 2.6 | 2.6 | 2.6 |
Threshold for the higher property rate | 95,000 | 95,000 | 95,000 |
Income figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Data: Scottish Assessors’ Valuation Roll, local authority billing information. | | | |
- Asked by: Rachael Hamilton, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of how the scale of landholdings affects the ability of land managers to effectively manage deer populations in connection with its consultation, Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation.
Answer
Deer management is currently carried out across land holdings of varying size from 10Ha to over 10,000Ha. The extent of the deer management and any required collaboration is more dependent on the species and land type rather than any minimum size. For ‘territorial’ species such as roe deer the scale of management will often be at the individual farm unit; whereas for open hill red deer, that range across multiple large properties, the management scale expands to Deer Management Groups that cover many thousands of hectares.
The Code of Practice on Deer Management prescribes to everybody who owns or manages wild deer on someone else’s land (irrespective of the size of that land holding), how they should deliver sustainable deer management. A review of compliance with the Deer Code published 2019 concluded that where it was relevant to them, a majority of owner-occupiers, across varying land holdings, had undertaken actions to meet each of the themes outlined in the Deer Code. NatureScot, in their role as Scotland’s deer authority, work with a range of partners, including the Association of Deer Management Groups, local deer management groups and individual land managers to develop effective planning and deliver deer management across Scotland.
