Chamber and committees

The Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013 provides that land transactions with a chargeable consideration of less than £40,000 are not notifiable and that no tax return is therefore required. As such, this information is not available.

Adult Disability Payment provides financial support to disabled adults to help mitigate the additional costs of being disabled or having a long-term ill health condition so they can lead their lives more independently and fully. It is not an income replacement benefit and eligibility for Adult Disability Payment is not related to employment.

The Scottish Government are working to improve employment opportunities for those who face barriers in the labour market, including disabled people and those with ill health conditions. Through No One Left Behind, the Scottish Government are delivering person-centred, tailored employability services and in-work support through locally designed services. Between April and June 2024, 30% of participants accessing the service reported a disability, the largest proportion in a single quarter to date.

Work is underway to drive forward the commitment to implement Specialist Employability Support for disabled people across all 32 Local Authorities from Summer 2025 so that they can access secure fulfilling jobs.

Social Security Scotland routinely publishes information on Adult Disability Payment applications and caseload, broken down by disability condition. No information on the number of indefinite awards made as a result of Adult Disability Payment applications is currently published.

As of 31 October 2024, statistics showed that there were 374,655 clients on the Adult Disability Payment caseload, of which 142,480 had the primary disability condition “Mental and Behavioural Disorders”.

The latest Adult Disability Payment official statistics publication can be found at: https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/publications/statistics. The next release of Adult Disability Payment statistics which will cover the period to the end of January 2024, is due to be published on 18 March 2024.

Staff deployment is an operational matter for ScotRail as the employer.

It is incumbent on ScotRail and Scottish Rail Holdings to demonstrate that aims set out it their proposals to adjust the opening hours of some of ScotRail ticket offices can be achieved. This includes any improvements that can be delivered, which would enable ScotRail staff to help British Transport Police tackle anti-social behaviour.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-32072 on 7 January 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Discussions continue between the main funding partners in relation to financial packages and legal agreements as part of the business case and cost review exercise. Officials are progressing these matters as quickly and robustly as possible and will look to provide updates when notable progress is made.

Scottish Rail Holdings oversees Caledonian Sleeper services on behalf of Scottish Ministers and it advises that the regular Sleeper service of six times a week between Aberdeen and London is currently scheduled to recommence in February 2025.

The Scottish Government and COSLA are co-producing the Population Health Framework which will be published in Spring 2025. Extensive engagement has been undertaken throughout 2024 with public, third and private sector partners to support development of priorities and areas of action.

The public consultation on detail of proposed regulations to restrict promotions of food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) closed on 21 May 2024. The Scottish Government will publish an independent analysis report of these consultation responses in early 2025, alongside next steps and timelines for future regulation.

The Scottish Government officials are in regular discussions with the other UK administrations on bovine EID.

The number of properties expected to be liable for the Basic Property Rate (BPR) in 2025-2026 before any reliefs are applied is presented in the following tables, broken down in Table 1 by property class, and in Table 2 by council area.

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. The Scottish Government does not hold property-level data on industry sectors.

These tables are based on the non-domestic valuation roll as at 1 October 2024.

Table 1: Number of properties expected to be liable for BPR by class, to the nearest 10