Chamber and committees

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) has taken a number of steps to ensure all staff are aware of, informed about and trained in trauma-informed practice and principles. The organisation has:

1. Signed up to the National Trauma Training Programme’s (NTTP) Leadership Pledge of Support, demonstrating their commitment to:

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) is the health body for the provision of evidence-based advice, guidance and standards for health and care professionals to provide safer, more effective care. HIS carry out their statutory duties according to the Operating Framework which is the primary accountability and governance document between Scottish Government and HIS – you can find the full Operating Framework at https://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/previous_resources/policy_and_strategy/sg_his_operating_framework.aspx

The Framework sets out the ongoing relationship between the Scottish Government and HIS, guidance on performance management (including the Annual Review process) and the lines of accountability from HIS to the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament and the public.

In addition, HIS are taking a number of steps towards becoming a trauma-informed organisation. For further detail, I refer the member to the answer to question

The Scottish Government aims to answer all ministerial correspondence within 20 working days and regularly reviews and monitors its performance against this target.

Within the last year (December 2021 to December 2022), the longest response time was 272 days. This correspondence related to the donation of baby boxes to refugees from Ukraine and the delay was due to a processing error caused by a high volume of correspondence on refugees from Ukraine.

The Enhanced Psychology Practice (EPP) training course was established by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) in 2021, with the first round of training commencing in October of that year. Training numbers so far as follows;

• 14 learners from the Adult EPP Cohort 1 have completed training. 5 learners from Cohort 1 are still to complete due to extensions. Cohort 2 commenced in April 2022, with 22 learners currently in training.
• The Children and Young People (CYP) EPP pilot cohort commenced in April 2022 with 10 learners currently in training.
• Interviews concluded for the November 2022 cohorts of EPP-A and EPP-CYP learners in August. NES has issued offers for 32 places across both programmes.
• When at full capacity, an annual intake of approximately 100 learners will be possible. This will form a rolling programme of recruitment over several intake cycles.

The business rates incentivisation scheme is temporarily suspended as a result of the additional non domestic rates reliefs package provided during the COVID-19 pandemic. The intention is to reintroduce the scheme in 2023-24. The amount of revenue that will be able to be retained by local authorities in 2023-24 will depend on their collection performance against their 2023-24 collection targets.

Table 1 presents the expected gross income from the Higher Property Rate (HPR), after the application of the revaluation Transitional Relief (TR), in 2023-24. This is 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 does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property.

This table based on an imputed Valuation Roll based on an incomplete draft Valuation Roll, as used by the Scottish Fiscal Commission in Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts December 2022, and figures are therefore subject to change.

Figures in this table are rounded to the nearest £1,000.

Table 1: Estimated gross income from HPR after revaluation transitional relief in 2023-24 by property class

Table 1 presents the number of properties expected to be removed from the higher property rate (HPR) due to the increase of the rateable value threshold to £100,000, before any reliefs are applied. This is 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 does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property.

This table based on an imputed Valuation Roll based on an incomplete draft Valuation Roll, as used by the Scottish Fiscal Commission in Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts December 2022, and figures are therefore subject to change.

Figures in this table are rounded to the nearest 10, with values greater than zero but lower than five displayed as ‘[low]’.

Table 1: Number of properties removed from HPR in 2023-24 due to the threshold increase, by property class

The Scottish Government has backed Scotland’s economic recovery with more than £4.7 billion in direct business support since March 2020. This included 100% retail, hospitality, leisure (RHL) and aviation relief in both 2020-21 and 2021-22 uncapped, and 50% RHL relief in 2022-23 capped at £27,500, which expired on 30 June 2022.

We recognise the difficult economic climate and this is why the Scottish Budget 2023-24, announced on 15 December, included a freeze in the poundage – the number one ask of 18 business organisations, and delivering the lowest poundage in the UK for the fifth year in a row. It also proposed a package of reliefs worth £744m including the UK's most generous small business rates relief.

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.

As at 1 July 2022, there were 114,880 properties in receipt of 100% Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) relief and a further 1,140 properties that were in receipt of 100% rates relief as a result of a combined partial award of SBBS relief and another NDR relief – for a total 116,020 SBBS recipients that paid no rates. In 2023-24, due to changes to Rateable Values as a result of the 2023 revaluation and changes to the SBBS relief thresholds announced at the Draft Budget 2023-24, it is estimated that around 106,000 properties will receive 100% relief through SBBS, either solely through SBBS relief or through SBBS relief combined with another NDR relief.

This estimate is based on modelling that underpinned the costing of SBBS relief in Scottish Fiscal Commission’s (SFC) Economic and Fiscal Forecasts December 2022. As noted by the SFC, rateable values were projected and based on an incomplete draft Valuation Roll, and are therefore subject to change.

Table 1 presents the expected gross income from the Intermediate Property Rate (IPR), after the application of the revaluation Transitional Relief (TR), in 2023-24. This is 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 does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property.

This table is based on an imputed Valuation Roll based on an incomplete draft Valuation Roll, as used by the Scottish Fiscal Commission in Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts December 2022, and figures are therefore subject to change.

Figures in this table are rounded to the nearest £1,000.

Table 1: Estimated gross income from IPR after revaluation transitional relief in 2023-24 by property class