Chamber and committees

The 2026 Scottish Budget supports businesses and communities with a decrease to the three property rates and a package of reliefs forecast to save ratepayers over £870 million, in 2026-27. This includes the Small Business Bonus Scheme which remains the most generous of its kind in the UK.

Recognising the distinct challenges of retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, 15% relief is available for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure premises liable for the Basic or Intermediate Property Rate in mainland Scotland (excluding specified remote areas). An additional 25% relief is available for eligible licensed hospitality premises and music venues liable for the Basic or Intermediate Property Rates, taking their relief to 40%. These reliefs are capped at £110,000 per business per year.

Further, 100% relief is available to eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses on islands and in specified remote areas, capped at £110,000 per business per year.

Acknowledging the impact of the 2026 revaluation, the Budget introduced a Revaluation Transitional Relief to protect those seeing the most significant increases in rateable values, ensuring that the gross bills of around 60,000 properties are lower in 2026-27 than they otherwise would have been. Small Business Transitional Relief also ensures that properties losing or seeing a reduction in Small Business Bonus Scheme relief, rural rates relief, hospitality relief or 2023 Small Business Transitional Relief on 1 April 2026, do so in a phased manner.

We estimate that 96% of retail, hospitality and leisure businesses could benefit from some form of relief in 2026-27.

As a result of the decisions in the budget and the additional relief announced at Stage One of the Budget Bill, the revenues raised from non-domestic rates are estimated to be 7% lower in real terms (using CPI) in 2026-27 than pre-COVID, despite the number of non-domestic properties increasing in that time.

Reported incidents of drink spiking are likely to be recorded by the police as either (i) crimes of administering a substance for sexual purposes under section 11 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009, or (ii) drugging (assault). The former is recorded when a person intentionally administers a substance, or causes a substance to be taken, with the purpose of stupefying or overpowering, to enable any person to engage in a sexual activity involving the victim. The latter is similar in that a crime is committed when drugs are feloniously administered with intent to produce stupefaction, however there doesn’t need to be further intent, and it is not necessary that any injury to the victim is caused.

It is not possible to track these cases through the Justice system as each organisation uses their own administrative database for operational purposes. However figures can be provided on crimes recorded by the police, charges reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and of those charges, the number resulting in a conviction. It should be noted that crimes recorded in any one reporting year may become charges/prosecutions in later years. Furthermore, in the most recent years, a large proportion of the charges prosecuted remain ongoing. As the cases involved progress and reach a conclusion, it is possible that further convictions may be recorded.

In Scotland, conduct amounting to spiking can be prosecuted using a range of common law and statutory offences. As well as the common law offence of drugging and the statutory offence contained in section 11 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009, common law offences such as assault or culpable and reckless conduct can be considered. This framework allows prosecutors to assess each case individually and select the charges that best reflect the facts and circumstances of the case.

Challenges in prosecuting cases often arise from evidential difficulties which can include delayed reporting, the rapid metabolisation of substances, and lack of forensic opportunities. In most instances, the Procurator Fiscal becomes involved in an individual case in a substantive way on receipt of a report from Police Scotland, or other reporting agency. When a report alleging “spiking” is submitted to the Procurator Fiscal, and there is sufficient credible, reliable and admissible evidence in law, prosecutors adopt a robust approach when deciding what action best serves the public interest.

Total recorded crimes of either Drugging or Administering a substance for sexual purposes, Scotland, 2020-21 to 2024-25

Since the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) opened in 2015, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has faced challenges linked to the original build quality.

The Board has a range of ongoing legal proceedings against the main contractor as a result of these significant failures, which include defects with ensuite facilities.

Where issues are identified, these are managed on a case-by-case basis. This can include precautionary closure of individual rooms or areas while investigations and remedial works are carried out. This is a dynamic position reflecting ongoing inspection, maintenance and repair activity.

Patient safety is at the heart of the Board’s work, and their Estates and contractor teams continue to repair defects on an ongoing basis as required.

The Board is working with designers and specialist contractors to develop a long-term refit design option for all ensuite rooms in due course. There is currently no confirmed timetable for completion of this programme.

As legal proceedings are ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment on potential recovery of costs from contractors or insurers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00360 on 8 June 2026. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00360 on 8 June 2026. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government is committed to creating 500 new jobs in Grangemouth by the end of this Parliament. Our investment of up to £7,732,078, announced in December 2025, in MiAlgae and Celtic Renewables will support the creation of 279 jobs at Grangemouth by 2029. Many of these roles will pay above the median salary for workers in Scotland.

My officials are working collaboratively with the UK Government via the Grangemouth Investor Taskforce to identify further such investment opportunities that would create well paid jobs across the cluster. I continue to call on the UK Government to realise their commitment of supporting Grangemouth’s transition by deploying £200 million from the National Wealth Fund.

All pharmacies in Great Britain, including those providing on-line services, must be registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and meet their standards for registered pharmacies. These standards cover areas such as governance arrangements, safeguarding, environment and conditions, service delivery, premises and equipment. Not meeting the GPhC’s standards could result in them taking enforcement action and investigating the fitness to practise of all the pharmacy professionals involved.

In addition, in Scotland Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) regulates independent, on-line services, and as part of its role provides information to the public on how to keep safe when getting medicines or treatment online. Unfortunately many prescription medicines obtained online originate from outside the UK and are not regulated by the GPhC, HIS or other UK regulatory authorities. However, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has overall responsibility for medicine safety, regulation and licensing and the Scottish Government works in close partnership with them to raise awareness of the risk of buying prescription-only medicines online without consulting a suitable NHS healthcare professional.

Specifically in schools, children and young people learn about a variety of substances including alcohol, medicines, drugs, tobacco and solvents as part of Curriculum for Excellence and the Scottish Government is working with the MHRA and Education Scotland to strengthen medicines safety information in the Scottish curriculum. Universities have a responsibility to ensure that students can engage with student support, wellbeing and/or learning support services.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publish estimates of the number of children living in workless households by region from the ONS Annual Population Survey (APS) household datasets. A workless household is defined as a household containing at least one person aged 16 to 64 in which all persons aged 16 and over are either unemployed or economically inactive.

The latest available estimates are for January to December 2024.

The estimated number of children living in workless households in Scotland was 112,200 in 2024, 12.7% of children living in all households in Scotland.

Source: Annual Population Survey Household dataset, ONS

Office for National Statistics (ONS), published 29 October 2025, ONS website, statistical bulletin, Children living in long-term workless households in the UK: 2024

The information requested on how many whole-time equivalent NHS podiatrists have been employed in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Workforce planning for podiatry is taken forward as part of the wider Allied Health Professions workforce. The Allied Health Professions Education and Workforce Policy Review (2023) set out actions to ensure a sustainable workforce, and an advisory board is overseeing implementation. This includes expanding and diversifying routes into careers, such as “earn as you learn” models, and supporting initiatives like the PREPARE programme, which enables podiatrists to train while employed. These actions are designed to strengthen the training pipeline and support recruitment and retention.

The Scottish Government does not hold data regarding the number of incidents involving possession, misuse or adverse health consequences associated with prescription stimulants among pupils or students.

The ‘Alcohol and Drugs Strategic Plan’, published on the 10 March 2026, includes a commitment to continuing to support the healthy development of children and young people. This includes supporting the implementation of national guidance to aid education authorities in updating local policies for responding to substance use in school settings, and supporting the development of age and stage appropriate alcohol and drug education and prevention resources as part of the wider curriculum review.

We also published ‘Young people accessing support or treatment for alcohol and drugs: standards’ in December 2025 and remain committed to working with partners to implement these standards to ensure young people have access to appropriate and effective support.