Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S7O-00240

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2026
Current Status: Due to be taken in the Chamber on 17 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what dialogue it has had with the UK Government regarding Royal Mail's preparations for the 2026 festive season, including how Royal Mail will support businesses in Scotland during their busiest time of the year.

Question reference: S7O-00190

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to allow local authorities to introduce a cruise ship levy.

Question reference: S7O-00141

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 August 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what discussions it has had with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde regarding the scheduled replacement of the exterior façade and windows of Inverclyde Royal Hospital.

Question reference: S6F-04772

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 March 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 March 2026

To ask the First Minister, following the Union Street fire in Glasgow, what discussions the Scottish Government has had with Network Rail regarding the organisation having a greater say over what types of businesses can be located in close vicinity to key transport hubs such as Glasgow Central.

Question reference: S6O-05591

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any discussions it has had with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde regarding the implementation of the Royal Mail NHS-specific barcode system to ensure that appointment letters, test results and urgent patient correspondence are delivered on time, particularly during service disruptions.

Question reference: S6W-43488

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 13 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether operating costs, including energy and staffing costs, are taken into account in the valuation of licensed hospitality premises for non-domestic rates calculation purposes.

The valuation of all non-domestic property is a matter for the Scottish Assessors who are independent of central and local government. By law, Assessors must ascertain a Net Annual Value (NAV) for all subjects entered on the Valuation Roll. This is defined as “the rent at which the lands and heritages might reasonably be expected to let from year to year” under section 6(8) of the Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act 1956.

Scottish Assessors produce Practice Notes for different types of subjects and these are accessible at: 2026 Practice Notes – Scottish Assessors. The Practice Note for Licensed premises can be found at Licensed Premises.

The essence of the valuation scheme for licensed premises is the Hypothetical Achievable Turnover (HAT). Assessors identify the relationship between available rents and turnovers for licensed premises at the relevant valuation date. This relationship can then be used to derive a scheme of value which can be used to value all licensed premises. The calculation of HAT does not incorporate operating costs such as energy or staffing costs.

Question reference: S6W-43484

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 13 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, following the publication of the non-domestic rates revaluation statistics on 13 January 2026, what shifts there have been in rateable value by property class, in each local authority area.

Question reference: S6W-43487

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 12 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what change in revenue it anticipates from the licensed hospitality sector as a result of any combined impact of the 2026-27 non-domestic rates revaluation and budget decisions.

Question reference: S6W-43482

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 11 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, following the publication of the non-domestic rates revaluation statistics on 13 January 2026, whether any analysis has been conducted of the distributional changes on rateable value by geographic area.

The Scottish Government has conducted extensive analysis of the draft valuation roll, including changes by council and assessor areas. Changes in rateable value by council area, as well as the total current and draft rateable value in each council area, have been added to Table 2a of the non-domestic rates revaluation 2026 draft valuation roll statistics which can be accessed at: Non-domestic rates revaluation 2026: draft valuation roll statistics.

Question reference: S6W-43483

Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 30 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 11 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, following the publication of the non-domestic rates revaluation statistics on 13 January 2026, what shifts there have been in rateable value in each local authority area.

Table 1 shows the change in rateable value between the current and draft valuation rolls by council area.

The published statistics, available at Non-domestic rates revaluation 2026: draft valuation roll statistics, have been updated to include this information in Table 2a. Updated information will be published once final valuations are available.

Table 1: Change at draft 2026 revaluation by council area

Council area	Change in rateable value
Scotland	12.25%
Aberdeen City	6.97%
Aberdeenshire	7.06%
Angus	9.55%
Argyll and Bute	17.49%
City of Edinburgh	19.57%
Clackmannanshire	8.07%
Dumfries and Galloway	11.48%
Dundee City	8.18%
East Ayrshire	6.33%
East Dunbartonshire	5.77%
East Lothian	6.46%
East Renfrewshire	4.82%
Falkirk	10.44%
Fife	15.20%
Glasgow City	10.65%
Highland	16.45%
Inverclyde	6.91%
Midlothian	9.95%
Moray	10.75%
Na h-Eileanan Siar	15.96%
North Ayrshire	9.06%
North Lanarkshire	7.36%
Orkney Islands	17.65%
Perth and Kinross	10.59%
Renfrewshire	8.68%
Scottish Borders	11.98%
Shetland Islands	7.80%
South Ayrshire	10.51%
South Lanarkshire	2.77%
Stirling	11.45%
West Dunbartonshire	7.53%
West Lothian	10.27%
Designated utilities	20.51%