The Scottish Parliament

Question reference: S7W-00656

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 May 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 12 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will increase police funding in line with inflation, in order to prevent further reductions to community policing.

Question reference: S7W-00310

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its commitment to reduce the public sector workforce, for what reason the devolved civil service headcount increased in the year to December 2025.

Question reference: S7W-00301

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of the Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan, what proportion of the identified £5 billion fiscal gap has been closed by measures announced to date, broken down by year.

Question reference: S7W-00300

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 9 June 2026

To ask the Scottish Government in what financial year it expects the devolved public sector headcount to begin falling, in light of reports that it rose in the year following the publication of its workforce reduction target.

Question reference: S6O-05650

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 March 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to expand the availability of venture capital funding to aid business growth.

Question reference: S6W-43701

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 20 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide information on the (a) number of woodland creation schemes over 500 hectares that have been funded in each year since 2010 and (b) size of each of these schemes.

The Forestry Grant Scheme has funded 13 woodland creation projects over 500 hectares since 2015, the year the grant scheme opened.

Year	No. Projects > 500 ha	Project Size (hectares)
2015	0	-
2016	1	559.13 ha
2017	1	803.68 ha
2018	0	-
2019	2	542.47 ha / 692.60 ha
2020	0	-
2021	1	609.11 ha
2022	3	740.84 ha / 711.78 ha / 623.16 ha
2023	3	733.30 ha / 1,164.21 ha / 809.00 ha
2024	1	710.62 ha
2025	1	501.28 ha

Statistics on the Forestry Grant Scheme are published monthly on the Scottish Forestry website, the January 2026 statistics are the latest available.

Question reference: S6W-43700

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 20 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many woodland creation schemes of (a) up to two, (b) two to five, (c) six to 10, (d) 11 to 20, (e) 21 to 50, (f) 51 to 100, (g) 101 to 200 and (h) over 200 hectares have been approved in each year from 2017 to 2025, also broken down by total area of woodland in each category.

Statistics on the Forestry Grant Scheme are published monthly on the Scottish Forestry website, the January 2026 statistics are the latest available.

A breakdown of how many woodland creation schemes of (a) up to two, (b) two to five, (c) six to 10, (d) 11 to 20, (e) 21 to 50, (f) 51 to 100, (g) 101 to 200 and (h) over 200 hectares have been approved in each complete financial year from 2017 to 2025 is shown in Table 1.

	2017-2018		2018-2019		2019-2020		2020-2021
Row Labels	Approved Case Count	Approved Area (ha)	Approved Case Count	Approved Area (ha)	Approved Case Count	Approved Area (ha)	Approved Case Count	Approved Area (ha)
0 < 2	30	27	37	46	31	36	19	23
2 < 5	35	126	34	117	34	109	43	140
5 < 10	37	273	37	257	43	312	42	301
10 < 20	42	637	35	516	42	602	32	454
20 < 50	63	2,227	58	1,898	50	1,689	54	1,945
50 < 100	19	1,364	27	1,866	26	1,804	32	2,216
100 < 200	10	1,524	17	2,396	16	2,191	14	1,968
> 200	10	3,346	9	2,658	12	4,216	14	3,730
Grand Total	246	9,524	254	9,753	254	10,958	250	10,776
Table 1.

	2021-2022		2022-2023		2023-2024		2024-2025
Row Labels	Approved Case Count	Approved Area (ha)	Approved Case Count	Approved Area (ha)	Approved Case Count	Approved Area (ha)	Approved Case Count	Approved Area (ha)
0 < 2	20	24	19	21	20	21	17	19
2 < 5	23	76	27	91	23	73	22	72
5 < 10	24	171	26	184	23	177	10	80
10 < 20	34	483	20	324	24	354	22	305
20 < 50	42	1,385	36	1,171	45	1,488	26	889
50 < 100	21	1,532	26	1,786	39	2,750	23	1,535
100 < 200	14	1,899	13	1,827	16	2,157	14	1,756
> 200	6	4,152	9	4,079	18	7,885	9	3,719
Grand Total	184	9,723	176	9,484	208	14,905	143	8,375

Question reference: S6O-05553

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 February 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 25 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting the tourism industry.

Question reference: S6W-43360

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Scottish National Party 2021 manifesto commitment, what the cost would be in 2026-27 of bringing the higher property rate into line with that in England, broken down by industry sector.

Decisions on Budget are made in the context of the prevailing economic conditions and government priorities. We have had to consider how best to target support within limited finances but also acknowledge that it is no longer possible to directly compare tax rates between Scotland, England and Wales due to differences in the tone dates used to derive Rateable Values. The move to three yearly revaluations and a one-year tone date was also a recommendation of the Barclay Review and was warmly welcomed by the business community and all parties in the Scottish Parliament.

The implication of that recommendation is that the tone date in England and Wales of 1 April 2022 will less accurately reflect up-to-date market and business conditions than the 1 April 2023 tone date adopted in Scotland. Different tone dates and by extension different impacts on Rateable Value growth, merit different decisions on tax rates and do not necessarily translate to higher liabilities.

By way of example, shops are expected to see an increase in total rateable value of 6% in Scotland and 10% in England. Hotels’ total rateable value is expected to rise by 28% in Scotland but 79% in England, while for pubs this is 15% in Scotland but 30% in England. For restaurants the overall increase is expected to be 8% in Scotland while the total rateable value increase of restaurants and cafes in England is expected to be 15%. The policies set out in the Scottish Budget reflect the impact of the revaluation in Scotland, not the revaluation in England.

Table 1 presents the estimated net cost of setting the Higher Property Rate at:

?43.0p for properties in the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors with rateable values of £500,000 and lower,

?48.0p for other properties with rateable values of £500,000 and lower,

?50.8p for all properties with rateable values over £500,000,

compared to the Higher Property rate of 54.8p as proposed in the Budget.

These are estimates of the net revenue impact, after all reliefs including the Revaluation Transitional Relief are applied.

This is 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 does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property.

Table 1: Cost of setting the Higher Property Rate to the same rates as England, by property class

Property class	Cost of setting the Higher Property Rate in line with England (£)
Shops	53,700,000
Public houses	4,100,000
Offices	23,600,000
Hotels	14,200,000
Industrial subjects	38,800,000
Leisure and entertainment	7,600,000
Garages and petrol stations	2,600,000
Cultural	500,000
Sporting subjects	400,000
Education and training	19,500,000
Public service subjects	8,400,000
Communications	1,000,000
Quarries, mines, etc.	500,000
Petrochemical	4,200,000
Religious	200,000
Health and medical	6,500,000
Other	4,100,000
Care facilities	700,000
Advertising	200,000
Statutory undertaking	35,500,000
All	226,500,000

Question reference: S6W-43356

Asked by: Murdo Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 10 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to fulfil the commitments in the Scottish National Party 2021 manifesto and subsequent Framework For Tax, and the recommendation of the Barclay review of non-domestic tax rates, to restore the level playing field with England for retail, hospitality, and leisure premises that are liable for the higher property rate.

Decisions on Budget are made in the context of the prevailing economic conditions and government priorities. We have had to consider how best to target support within limited finances but also acknowledge that it is no longer possible to directly compare tax rates between Scotland, England and Wales due to differences in the tone dates used to derive Rateable Values. The move to three yearly revaluations and a one-year tone date was also a recommendation of the Barclay Review and was warmly welcomed by the business community and all parties in the Scottish Parliament.

The implication of that recommendation is that the tone date in England and Wales of 1 April 2022 will less accurately reflect up-to-date market and business conditions than the 1 April 2023 tone date adopted in Scotland. Different tone dates and by extension different impacts on Rateable Value growth, merit different decisions on tax rates and do not necessarily translate to higher liabilities.

By way of example, shops are expected to see an increase in total rateable value of 6% in Scotland and 10% in England. Hotels’ total rateable value is expected to rise by 28% in Scotland but 79% in England, while for pubs this is 15% in Scotland but 30% in England. For restaurants the overall increase is expected to be 8% in Scotland while the total rateable value increase of restaurants and cafes in England is expected to be 15%.The policies set out in the Scottish Budget reflect the impact of the revaluation in Scotland not the revaluation in England.

The draft Scottish Budget 2026-27, announced on 13 January, ensures the estimated revenues raised from non-domestic rates in 2026-27 will be 6% lower in real terms measured by the Consumer Price Index than pre-COVID despite the number of properties on the valuation roll increasing in that time. It sets out a decrease in the three non-domestic property rates for 2026-27, including a 3.5% decrease in the Higher Property Rate, from 56.8p to 54.8p. This delivers a broadly revenue-neutral revaluation over the revaluation cycle in real terms.

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Question reference: S7W-00656

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