- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 17 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 29 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to its Emergency Budget Review, when it anticipates the joint taskforce with COSLA, regulatory agencies and business will convene, and when it anticipates it will conclude its work.
Answer
Scottish Government Officials are working towards holding the first meeting of the Joint Regulatory Taskforce as soon as possible and aim to hold before the end of 2022. Communications to key stakeholders to facilitate this will be issued shortly.
The Taskforce will also support and drive early progress towards meeting our commitments in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation to review and improve the process of developing, implementing and reviewing regulation to meet our economic and societal aims. Reviewing regulatory burdens on business will be a critical component of this work and we will seek to balance the essential role that regulation plays on driving innovation and achieving economic, societal and environmental goals with the concerns that businesses have expressed about the impact of new regulations during the cost crisis.
While the Taskforce was announced as part of the Emergency Budget Review in response to the ongoing cost crisis, it is also expected to help support the work towards the longer term goals. Therefore, there is no set date for the conclusion of its work but the terms of reference will be subject to ongoing review to ensure the group continues to be in the best position to support the delivery of these goals.
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 18 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has recently undertaken a review of devolved regulations and regulatory burdens affecting businesses, and, if so, when it will publish the conclusions of this work.
Answer
As part of the response to the cost crisis, the Scottish Government has engaged closely with business organisations, industry groups and individual businesses to hear their concerns during this significantly challenging time.
As noted in the Emergency Budget Statement on 2 October, this crisis is unprecedented; since the advent of devolution Scotland has not faced a situation that has combined the significant reduction in the Scottish Government's spending power with the massive impact of the cost crisis on households, businesses, public services and the third sector. We are constrained by both the limitations on our powers and on our budgets. This is why the Scottish Government has consistently called for more support from the UK Government to businesses.
Nevertheless, we committed to looking at what we do have devolved competence over, such as devolved regulation. That is why the Deputy First Minister announced that we will be establishing a Joint Regulatory Taskforce with COSLA, local authorities, regulatory agencies and businesses. This will support and drive early progress towards meeting our commitments in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation to review and improve the process of developing, implementing and reviewing regulation to meet our economic and societal aims. Reviewing regulatory burdens on business will be a critical component of this work and we will seek to balance the essential role that regulation plays on driving innovation and achieving economic, societal and environmental goals with the concerns that businesses have expressed about the impact of new regulations during the cost crisis. The intention is to bring members together as soon as possible, hopefully before the end of the year.
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 November 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 18 November 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Scottish National Party manifesto commitment, what the cost would be of bringing the higher non-domestic property rate into line with that in England, broken down by industry sector.
Answer
The 2023 revaluations in Scotland and England will for the first time have different tone dates following the Scottish Government’s acceptance of the independent Barclay Review of Non-Domestic Rates’ recommendation to move to three yearly revaluations and a one-year tone date. This inevitably results in direct comparison between the two systems being less meaningful than in the past with Scottish rateable values more accurately reflecting contemporary market circumstances.
The Scottish Budget will set out non-domestic rates measures including the poundage, supplements and reliefs that will apply in 2023-24 based upon draft values which will be published for the first time on 30 November 2022 but it will only be possible to accurately calculate the impact of different tax rates and supplements on individual sectors when final rateable values are published on 1 April 2023.
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 28 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many commercial properties in each local authority area are subject to the higher property rate in 2022-23, broken down by business sector.
Answer
Table 1 presents the number of properties with a liability for the higher property rate before reliefs are awarded, broken down by local authority and property class. Table 1 has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre under Bib No. 63637.
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.
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 September 2022
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2022
To ask the First Minister what the response has been from stakeholder groups regarding the Scottish Government’s proposals to introduce a freeze on rent.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 29 September 2022
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much it estimates will be raised from the higher property rate in 2022-23, broken down by business sector.
Answer
Table 1 presents the gross estimated income from the higher property rate, by property class.
The figures presented are gross amounts and do not take account of reductions in liability due to reliefs awarded in 2022-23. This is due to the application of a £27,500 cap per ratepayer on retail, hospitality and leisure relief in 2022-23 which means that it is not possible for the Scottish Government to robustly estimate the breakdown of net figures by property class.
Figures in Table 1 are 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 may not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property.
Table 1: Estimated gross HPR income, by property class in 2022-23
Property Class | Gross HPR income (£) |
Shops | 23,480,000 |
Public Houses | 819,000 |
Offices | 14,211,000 |
Hotels | 5,197,000 |
Industrial Subjects | 18,678,000 |
Leisure, Entertainment, Caravans etc. | 3,912,000 |
Garages and Petrol Stations | 749,000 |
Cultural | 883,000 |
Sporting Subjects | 238,000 |
Education and Training | 12,372,000 |
Public Service Subjects | 5,762,000 |
Communications | 502,000 |
Quarries, Mines, etc. | 203,000 |
Petrochemical | 2,791,000 |
Religious | 110,000 |
Health and Medical | 4,556,000 |
Other | 2,259,000 |
Care Facilities | 1,374,000 |
Advertising | 74,000 |
Statutory Undertaking | 23,847,000 |
All | 122,017,000 |
Source: Scottish Assessors’ Valuation Roll as at 1 July 2022.
Figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000.
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many times rates relief has been (a) applied for and (b) awarded under the Non-Domestic Rates (Reverse Vending Machine Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 in (i) 2020-21, (ii) 2021-22 and (iii) 2022-23 to date, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
As at 1 July 2022 (latest available data), no entries of reverse vending machines had been made to the Valuation Roll, therefore no relief under the Non-Domestic Rates (Reverse Vending Machine Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 has been awarded.
The Valuation Roll is maintained by the independent Scottish Assessors.
Information on applications for rates relief is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) higher property rate and (b) large business rates supplement have been in each
of the last 15 years, broken down by how much tax revenue this generated.
Answer
Table 1 shows the estimated net income from the large business supplement in 2019-20. Figures for 2019-20 and earlier are available in the answer to S5W-25592, available at: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers/question?ref=S5W-25592 . Table 1 updates the previously given figure for 2019-20 with more recent data, which was not available at the time of the original answer.
Table 2 shows the estimated gross and net income from the higher property rate since 2020-21. It is not possible for the Scottish Government to robustly estimate the net income in 2022-23, due to the application of a £27,500 cap per ratepayer on retail, hospitality and leisure relief, therefore only the gross figure is given.
Table 1: Net income from the large business supplement
Year | 2019-20 |
Estimated net income from the large business supplement | 125,878,000 |
Large business supplement (pence) | 2.6 |
Large business supplement threshold | 51,000 |
Income figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Data: Scottish Assessors’ Valuation Roll, local authority billing information. | |
Table 2: Gross and net income from the higher property rate
Year | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 |
Estimated net income from the higher property rate | 80,648,000 | 93,250,000 | [not available] |
Estimated gross income from the higher property rate | 123,260,000 | 121,745,000 | 122,017,000 |
Higher property rate (in pence, in addition to the poundage) | 2.6 | 2.6 | 2.6 |
Threshold for the higher property rate | 95,000 | 95,000 | 95,000 |
Income figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Data: Scottish Assessors’ Valuation Roll, local authority billing information. | | | |
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 26 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities are (a) using and (b) seeking to use their powers under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 to reduce business rates in 2022-23.
Answer
The administration of the non-domestic rates system, including the award of reliefs, is a matter for local authorities. In the Non-domestic rates income - provisional contributable amount returns, provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government at the start of 2022-23, no local authority indicated that they expect to award rates reliefs under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 in 2022-23.
- Asked by: Liz Smith, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 September 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 September 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to restore parity with England regarding commercial premises liable for the higher property rate, and, if so, when this will take place.
Answer
Decisions on non-domestic rates, including the poundage and any reliefs or supplements, are generally considered in the context of the Scottish Budget in line with other government priorities.
The Scottish Budget 2022-23 delivers the lowest poundage in the UK for the fourth year in a row, ensuring that over 95% of non-domestic properties continue to be liable for a lower property tax rate than anywhere else in the UK.
