Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is providing an initial £490 million of capital in the form of Financial Transactions through the £150 million Building Scotland Fund (over 2018-21) and a further £340 million (over 2019-21) for other pre-cursor Bank investments. These commitments were announced in the 2018-19 draft budget. Further capitalisation of the Bank will be made from future Scottish budgets.

It will be for the Bank to prepare and publish its own Ethical Code or Statement, setting out how it will meet the objectives set for it by Scottish Ministers in this regard. The Scottish Government expects this to occur as soon as it is practicable following the Bank’s creation. The strategic framework for the Bank is under development and we intend for this to be published in draft later this year, although some formal elements, in particular the shareholder framework for the Bank, can only be finalised when the Bank is created.

The Policy Memorandum set out that: “The Bank will lend solely to the private sector” and that: “It will not lend to public institutions including local authorities, government agencies or arms-length bodies.” In this context we have used ‘private’ to refer to sectors out with the public sector. The Bank will be able to provide financial assistance for commercial activities, which may be carried out by a range of bodies such as social enterprises, those in the third sector and cooperatives, as well as other types of body or organisation in the private sector. See also the answer to question S5W-23167 on 29 May 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

In referring to “financial assistance to commercial activities” the Equality Impact Assessment is in turn referring to Section 2(1) of the Scottish National Investment Bank Bill and that section mirrors what is provided for in Schedule 5 of the Scotland Act 1998. In this context “Commercial” refers to business activities that are profit-making or aim to be profit-making, carried out by business associations of various types, that the Bank may be interested in providing financial assistance to.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-23167 on 29 May 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W -23163 on 29 May 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

UK Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax forms are returned on a company-by-company basis, with one tax return for all their business in the UK. There is therefore no historic data on APD receipts or passengers paying APD in Scotland.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) produces an illustrative forecast of Scotland's share of UK APD revenues.This uses Civil Aviation Authority departing passenger survey data and UK GDP growth and inflation forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility to estimate the number of passengers exempt from the tax and to calculate the tax paid by the remaining chargeable passengers.

The most recent illustrative forecast was set out in the SFC’s December 2018 Scotland's Economic and Fiscal Forecasts (Table 3.43 - p149) : http://www.fiscalcommission.scot/publications/scotlands-economic-and-fiscal-forecasts/scotlands-economic-and-fiscal-forecasts-december-2018/ .

Note that the 2017-16 Figure for APD is not classed as outturn data, it is an estimate of the Scottish share of tax receipts.

Updated forecasts are due to be published on 30 May 2019.

The introduction of Air Departure Tax in Scotland has been deferred until the issues raised in relation to the Highlands and Islands exemption have been resolved. In the interim the current UK Air Passenger Duty (APD) rates and bands continue to apply in Scotland, and HMRC will continue to administer and collect APD across the UK.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission produced an illustrative forecast of Scotland's share of UK APD revenues in December 2018. The forecast for the fiscal year 2019-20 was £312 million, and for 2020-21 was £322 million.

Updated forecasts are due to be published on 30 May 2019.

The introduction of Air Departure Tax (ADT) in Scotland has been deferred until the issues raised in relation to the Highlands and Islands exemption have been resolved. In the interim the current UK Air Passenger Duty (APD) rates and bands continue to apply in Scotland, and HMRC will continue to administer and collect APD across the UK. There will be no impact on the Scottish Budget and no Block Grant Adjustment for APD while the introduction of ADT in Scotland is deferred.

Only once the devolution of the tax is complete, and ADT is collected in Scotland by Revenue Scotland, will APD be 'switched off' and the Block Grant will be reduced every year to reflect the transfer of this power to the Scottish Government. This 'Block Grant Adjustment' (BGA) will be based on the forecast UK Government receipts in Scotland in the year prior to devolution of that tax and an indexation mechanism using growth in UK Government APD revenue growth per head.

There is a global climate emergency and we are acting accordingly. We acted immediately on the Committee for Climate Change advice with amendments to the Bill to set a net-zero target for 2045 and increase the targets for 2030 (to 70%) and 2040 (90%). We will update the Climate Change Plan within 6 months of the Bill receiving Royal Assent. This Scottish Government, will be placing climate change at the heart of everything we do and I can confirm that it will be at the core of our next Programme for Government. Policy reviews will feed into the process of development of the Programme for Government and the update to the Climate Change Plan.