Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-35333

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it will provide for adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism assessments in the Aberdeenshire Council area in 2025-26.

The recently approved 2025-26 Budget will provide a record £21.7 billion for Health & Social Care next year, including £16.2 billion for NHS Boards.

NHS Boards and other local partners are responsible for prioritising funding to ensure that their local population receives the highest quality of care and treatment at the right time and in the right place.

I expect any body responsible for planning and delivering health services to the public in Scotland to operate within the relevant strategic and statutory frameworks. Scottish Government officials are engaging with Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership and NHS Grampian about their plans.

We are working with NHS Boards and partners to improve access to diagnosis and we have commissioned the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to support local health partners to develop, enhance and redesign existing local neurodevelopmental services. As part of this, NAIT is also working with NHS Boards to build a neurodevelopmentally informed workforce in Scotland.

Through our £1 million Adult Autism Support Fund (AASF), the Scottish Government funds SensationALL, which provides support to autistic adults in both Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. Whilst this support does not include assessments, a diagnosis is not required to access the service, and the majority of service users have reported improved wellbeing as a consequence of this support.

Question reference: S6W-35334

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 10 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it provided for adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism assessments in the Aberdeenshire Council area in (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23, (c) 2023-24 and (d) 2024-25.

The Scottish Government provided £400,000 to establish an adult ADHD and autism assessment service in Aberdeenshire between 2019-21.

NHS Boards and other local partners are responsible for prioritising funding to ensure that their local population receives the highest quality of care and treatment at the right time and in the right place. Accordingly, funding for adult ADHD and autism assessments in the Aberdeenshire Council area between 2021 and 2025 will have been derived from the overall budget allocated to NHS Grampian.

In 2021-22, NHS Grampian received £1,027.9 million from the Scottish Government. In 2022-23, NHS Grampian received £1,072.2 million from the Scottish Government, an uplift of 4 per cent on the previous year. In 2023-24, NHS Grampian received £1,129.9 million from the Scottish Government, an uplift of 5 per cent on the previous year. Finally, in 2024-25, NHS Grampian received £1,176.4 million from the Scottish Government, an uplift of 4% on the previous year.

Question reference: S6O-04388

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Institute for Fiscal Studies' assessment in its Scottish Budget 2025-26 report that "it is particularly important that the front-loaded increases in investment and public service spending planned are undertaken effectively".

Question reference: S6W-34595

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 February 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 21 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-08765 by Tom Arthur on 10 June 2022, whether ATMs at retailers' premises are now exempted from non-domestic rates and, if so, on what date this exemption came into place; how many ATMs have been affected by this, and whether it has or will issue backdated refunds, similar to England and Wales.

The valuation of all non-domestic property, including sites of ATMs, is a matter for Scottish Assessors who are independent of local and Scottish Government.

Following the consideration of the valuation of ATMs as referred to in answer to question S6W-08765, Assessors removed most ATM sites from the Valuation Roll. In some circumstances however, ATM sites are still considered rateable and entered on the valuation roll.

On 1 April 2022, there were a total of 2,140 ATM site entries on the valuation roll of which 1,740 entries, just over 80%, had been removed by 30 March 2023. The numbers of entries are rounded to the nearest ten. The Scottish Government does not hold information on the reasons for the removal of any particular entry from the Valuation Roll, and it is likely that these figures will include some ATMs which were removed as a result of their physical removal and decommissioning.

Non-domestic rates bills are administered by local authorities and where a property is removed from the Valuation Roll, the ratepayer will be entitled to a refund of any overpaid rates back to the effective date of deletion.

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

Question reference: S6O-04372

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with the Scottish Funding Council regarding the University of Dundee.

Question reference: S6O-04332

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 February 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can provide to Dundee Heritage Trust to ensure the long-term future of the organisation.

Question reference: S6W-32778

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 23 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 7 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Scottish National Party manifesto commitment, what the cost would be in 2025-26 of bringing the Higher Property Rate into line with that in England, broken down by industry sector.

In England, the standard multiplier in 2025-2026 is being uprated to 55.5p, from 54.6p in 2024-2025. In Scotland, the proposed Higher Property Rate for 2025-2026 is 56.8p, increasing from 55.9p in 2024-2025.

Table 1 shows the estimated cost of setting the Higher Property Rate at 55.5p, compared to 56.8p, broken down by property class. 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 does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100,000, and may not sum due to rounding.

Table 1: Estimated cost of setting the higher property rate to 55.5p
Property class	Estimated cost
Shops	9,100,000
Public houses and restaurants	400,000
Offices	6,400,000
Hotels	2,500,000
Industrial subjects	9,300,000
Leisure, entertainment, caravans, etc.	1,100,000
Garages and petrol stations	400,000
Cultural	100,000
Sporting subjects	200,000
Education and training	5,000,000
Public service subjects	2,600,000
Communications	300,000
Quarries, mines, etc.	100,000
Petrochemical	1,500,000
Religious	<50,000
Health and medical	1,900,000
Other	1,400,000
Care facilities	100,000
Advertising	100,000
Statutory undertaking	12,400,000
All	54,700,000

Question reference: S6W-31227

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 November 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 25 November 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27073 by Joe FitzPatrick on 3 May 2024, in light of the minister's comment that the "intention is to agree and publish the framework in advance of Budget 2025-26", whether it has agreed a fiscal framework with local government and, if so, on what date this will be published.

We have made significant progress on delivering a Fiscal Framework with Local Government. The foundations of the framework are being applied in practice through the simplification and consolidation of the Local Government Settlement, development of clear routes to deliver local revenue streams such as the Visitor Levy and Cruise Ship Levy, and establishing more frequent and meaningful budget engagement. We continue to work with Local Government to progress the Fiscal Framework and intend to publish an update on the framework around the 2025-26 Scottish Budget and Local Government Settlement.

Question reference: S6W-30361

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assumptions it made on public sector pay when setting the 2024-25 Budget.

The Scottish Government places the upmost importance on planning accordingly to balance its budget. We originally assumed 3% per cent for pay awards at the time of the Budget, and a 2% +1% phased multi-year approach was confirmed as part of our 2024-25 Pay Policy.

The 3% was based on a range of judgements including affordability and on known funding at the time under the previous UK Government. The UK Government’s Autumn Statement was the worst-case scenario for Scotland and caused further uncertainty about future funding for public services from UK Government.

Stabilising economic conditions were also taken into account with inflation forecast to reduce to 2%. To those who believe we should set out our pay metrics earlier, it is worth remembering the UK Government does not set out its pay policy for the public sector and does not share the workings of the Pay Review bodies with us.

Question reference: S6W-30358

Asked by: Michael Marra, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 October 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a list of the dates on which its Tax Advisory Group (a) has met and (b) is scheduled to meet.

Chamber and committees