Current status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 13 March 2026
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will establish an equivalent to the UK Government's Places of Worship Renewal Fund in Scotland, in light of the reported closure of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, and what assessment it has made of the provision of any Barnett consequential funding that may support doing so.
In light of the UK Government’s decision, the Scottish Government is actively exploring options to ensure that listed places of worship in Scotland are not disproportionately affected by this withdrawal of UK-wide VAT relief.
I asked for clarity about Barnett consequential funding from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government. She has reviewed movements in the UK Government Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s funding from the UK Spending Review, and this shows negligible changes in capital budgets across the period. On this basis, it appears that existing funding has simply been repurposed from the now scrapped UK-wide scheme.