Chamber and committees

The COPFS Victims Right to Review Annual Report 2021-22 was published on the COPFS website on 24 January 2023.

The report is available on the COPFS website at the link below.

https://www.copfs.gov.uk/publications/victims-right-to-review-annual-report-2021-to-2022/

The Scottish Government has backed Scotland’s economic recovery with more than £4.7 billion in direct business support since March 2020. The Scottish Government considered a range of options in advance of the Scottish Budget
‎ 2023-24, including options for sectoral reliefs such as for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors.

Recognising the difficult economic climate, we announced a strong non-domestic rates package in the Scottish Budget 2023-24, including a freeze in the poundage – the number one ask of business organisations - delivering the lowest poundage in the UK for the fifth year in a row and a package of reliefs worth £744m. This includes the UK's most generous small business rates relief and also Rural Rates Relief which provides up to 100% relief for properties in rural areas.

We expect around half the properties in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors to be eligible for 100% Small Business Bonus Scheme relief next year. Properties in these sectors may also be eligible for the transitional relief schemes set out in the Budget.

Under the legal framework set by the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 and agreed by the Scottish Parliament, a target outcome is determined at the time it is reported, which means that it is not possible to subsequently meet a previously missed emissions target.

The Scottish Government meets regularly with the UK Government to discuss areas of shared interest on climate change, including through the Net Zero, Energy and Climate Change Inter-Ministerial Group. Given the significant powers reserved to Westminster, including on energy infrastructure, taxation and borrowing powers, the Scottish Government intend to discuss further with the UK Government how we can ensure our plans aren't delayed as a result of UK Government decisions where shared action is needed to meet our future emissions targets.

The Scottish Government’s final report on the evaluation of Minimum Unit Pricing will be published in late summer 2023 after Public Health Scotland’s report is published.

Public Health Scotland will publish their final report on Minimum Unit Pricing in summer 2023.

The Scottish Government did not mark National Pothole Day 2023 .

The extremely stretching statutory emissions targets framework, set in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (“the 2009 Act”) by the Scottish Parliament, places specific duties on Scottish Ministers in the case that emissions reduction targets are missed. In particular, a missed emissions target triggers a duty on Ministers to bring forward – as soon as reasonably practicable after such a target outcome has been reported - additional policies and proposals to compensate in future years for the excess emissions arising from the missed target.

Under section 36 of the 2009 Act, a statutory catch-up report in relation to the 2019 annual emissions target was laid in Parliament in October 2021 (supplementing the ambitious and transformational commitments in the updated Climate Change Plan, finalised in March 2021)which included measures to make up for the shortfall from the previously missed 2017 and 2018 annual targets.

This approach ensures that the total amount of Scottish emissions over the lifetime of the targets in the Act will remain no greater than would have been the case if all of the annual targets had been exactly met.

The reforms of the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) relief announced in the Scottish Budget ensure that it remains the most generous in the UK, and will continue to take 100,000 properties out of rates altogether.

We are expanding the upper eligibility threshold for the Small Business Bonus Scheme to £20,000 and making the relief more progressive by introducing a taper. To ensure that properties that lose some or all of their eligibility for SBBS or Rural rates relief do so in a phased manner we are also offering a Small Business Transitional Relief which will protect an estimated 19,000 properties in 2023-24.

Forecasted costs of SBBS over the next five years, including changes to SBBS thresholds and rates, can be found in the Scottish Fiscal Commission Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts – December 2022 .

The total cost for this campaign, which was active from 4 January 2023 and is currently scheduled to end on 19 January 2023, was £226,952.

Transport Scotland is continuing to consult with Local Authorities and others to develop both the secondary legislation required to allow them to enforce the National pavement parking prohibition as well as the Parking Standards Guidance which will underpin the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019.

The first of the associated regulations, which sets out the Exemption Order Procedures which local authorities must follow, was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 16 November and came into force on 9 December 2022.

My officials continue to work on the other secondary legislation which is required during the course of this year. These further regulations will ensure Local Authorities have all of the necessary tools to enforce the pavement parking prohibitions from late 2023 onwards.