Chamber and committees

The 2026 Scottish Budget supports businesses and communities with a decrease to the three property rates and a package of reliefs forecast to save ratepayers over £870 million, in 2026-27. This includes the Small Business Bonus Scheme which remains the most generous of its kind in the UK.

Recognising the distinct challenges of retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, 15% relief is available for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure premises liable for the Basic or Intermediate Property Rate in mainland Scotland (excluding specified remote areas). An additional 25% relief is available for eligible licensed hospitality premises and music venues liable for the Basic or Intermediate Property Rates, taking their relief to 40%. These reliefs are capped at £110,000 per business per year.

Further, 100% relief is available to eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses on islands and in specified remote areas, capped at £110,000 per business per year.

Acknowledging the impact of the 2026 revaluation, the Budget introduced a Revaluation Transitional Relief to protect those seeing the most significant increases in rateable values, ensuring that the gross bills of around 60,000 properties are lower in 2026-27 than they otherwise would have been. Small Business Transitional Relief also ensures that properties losing or seeing a reduction in Small Business Bonus Scheme relief, rural rates relief, hospitality relief or 2023 Small Business Transitional Relief on 1 April 2026, do so in a phased manner.

We estimate that 96% of retail, hospitality and leisure businesses could benefit from some form of relief in 2026-27.

As a result of the decisions in the budget and the additional relief announced at Stage One of the Budget Bill, the revenues raised from non-domestic rates are estimated to be 7% lower in real terms (using CPI) in 2026-27 than pre-COVID, despite the number of non-domestic properties increasing in that time.

Six GP walk-in centres are currently operational, with the first delivered in February. Three of those are already operating seven days a week, with the remainder open on a phased basis, but all will move to full hours in due course. The intention of a phased basis opening was to deliver new services as quickly as possible for patients.

The decision to introduce an international ferry service is a consideration for the commercial ferry operator and relevant port authorities, including the timing for introducing a service.

The Scottish Government is supportive of the reintroduction of direct ferry services to Europe. Ministers and officials have engaged with a number of interested parties regarding the introduction of new ro-ro ferry services from Rosyth to Europe, and Transport Scotland officials continue to engage regularly with potential operators and Scotland’s main ports.

The Scottish Government also recently amended the Minimum Requirements for the Location of a Border Control Post through The Official Controls (Location of Border Control Posts) (Scotland) Regulations 2026. This amendment came into force on 21 March 2026 and provides flexibility by allowing goods to arrive at a point of entry and then transit to an appropriately designated Border Control Post (BCP), provided that both the point of entry and the BCP are located within the same Scottish Green Freeport zone or within the outer boundary of that Freeport. This could enable goods in scope to be processed at BCP facilities at Port of Grangemouth instead of requiring new facilities at Port of Rosyth.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of maintaining a safe, high-quality NHS estate and we are aware that there remain a substantial backlog of maintenance which Health Boards are actively managing and prioritising based on risk and patient safety.

Our funding position has not changed, and we maintain that decision making on local transport priorities remains the responsibility of individual local authorities and the Scottish Government cannot intervene in this process.

As I set out in my letter of 11 February 2026 to the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee regarding Petition PE1900, NHS boards are asked to provide annual updates each November on progress in addressing the issues identified through the rapid review of healthcare provision in police custody.

These annual returns seek information on arrangements for the safe storage and supply of controlled drugs, the existence of written policies to ensure detainees can access prescribed medication (including opioid substitution therapy), and the operation of clinical governance processes such as the recording and review of adverse events, complaints and feedback. Boards are also asked to set out improvement actions and timescales where gaps are identified.

This monitoring is complemented by scrutiny from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland and Healthcare Improvement Scotland. Their joint work has established an inspection framework for healthcare services in police custody, underpinned by a human rights-based approach and aligned with Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s quality indicators, to provide assurance on the quality and safety of care.

Delivery of healthcare in police custody remains an operational responsibility for NHS boards. The Scottish Government will continue to work with partners to support consistent implementation across Scotland.

The Scottish Government continues to make progress in delivering the National GP IT Reprovisioning Programme, working closely with NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), system suppliers and territorial health boards.

Migrations to the Vision hosted GP IT system are ongoing and continue to scale up. The Primary Care Digital Services (Scotland) programme team is currently working with each health board to agree Quarter 3 2026-27 deployment plans, and in some cases Quarter 4 plans, to support the continued rollout of the new system.

As at 30 April, a total of 395 GP practices have successfully migrated to the Vision hosted system. This includes 343 Vision-to-Vision migrations, representing 85% of all planned Vision-to-Vision migrations, and 52 EMIS-to-Vision migrations, representing 11% of planned EMIS-to-Vision migrations. Overall, around 45% of Scottish GP practices have now transitioned to the Vision hosted platform.

Migrations resumed in late 2025 and will continue to accelerate throughout 2026 as deployment plans are finalised and capacity increases. NSS and suppliers remain actively engaged with health boards to support local readiness, data migration, and assurance activity.

The Scottish Government remains committed to modernising GP IT systems to support integrated care, improve services for patients, and reduce administrative burden for general practice.

Qualifications Scotland is responsible for its own operational decisions, including whether individuals can access their exam scripts.

An exemption to the right of access via subject access requests under the Data Protection Act 2018 applies to exam scripts. The application of this exemption is in line with Qualifications Scotland’s policy that the organisation does not provide marked exam scripts.

In 2024 a trial of providing access to marked exam papers was conducted for a selected number of subject and levels. Alongside identified benefits, the evaluation report also noted challenges with scalability. This included workload implications for practitioners, and the need for specific digital requirements to ensure the service can be delivered fairly and equitability for all learners and subjects. As such Qualifications Scotland has paused any further roll out.

The Scottish Government has made such representations in response both to specific cases and in the generality of immigration policy.

We expect the immigration system and visa approvals to reflect Scotland’s distinct demographic and economic needs. In view of this, the Scottish Government will continue to make representations and calls on the UK Government to introduce a tailored approach to migration reflecting Scotland’s distinct needs. In addition, the Scottish Government will continue to prioritise the recruitment of Gaelic medium teachers by promoting and supporting a range of routes into Gaelic medium education.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-00539. on 5 June 2026. 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.