Liz Smith

14 Nov 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what budget it has allocated for the rates relief available under the Non-Domestic Rates (Reverse Vending Machine Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 in each year since it came into effect.

Answer · Tom Arthur: Eligibility for non-domestic rates reliefs is set out in legislation and it is for local authorities to administer reliefs to eligible properties in accordance with that legislation. As such, the Scottish Government does not set aside allocations for individu…

14 Nov 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has received in the last year regarding the rates relief available under the Non-Domestic Rates (Reverse Vending Machine Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2020.

Answer · Tom Arthur: The Scottish Government received representations regarding Reverse Vending Machine relief from the Scottish Retail Consortium and a supermarket retailer.  

14 Nov 2022 · Written Question

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 · Ivan McKee: 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 Taskfo…

1 Nov 2022 · Written Question

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 · Tom Arthur: 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 o…

1 Nov 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has plans to introduce new legislation regarding prompt payment, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Answer · Ivan McKee: The Scottish Government is currently discussing the Late Payment (commercial transactions) Common Framework with the UK Government, Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive and will report back on this work in due course.

28 Oct 2022 · Written Question

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 · Ivan McKee: 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…

26 Sep 2022 · First Minister's Question

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.

7 Sep 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to its proposals on Transforming Our Economy, included in the Programme for Government 2022-23, when it expects to have completed its work "with the business community to identify further measures that can assist in addressing the increased costs and economic disruption that…

Answer · John Swinney: We regularly engage with businesses and over recent months this engagement has focussed on the difficulties businesses are facing in the current cost crisis and the lack of concrete action from the UK Government. We continue to press the UK Government to use…

5 Sep 2022 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it is having with local authorities regarding child protection policies in schools.

30 Aug 2022 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions ministers have had with residential outdoor education centres regarding the provision of bed spaces for 2023.

29 Aug 2022 · Written Question

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 · Tom Arthur: 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 th…

29 Aug 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much it estimates households spent installing interlinked domestic smoke alarms in the six months before the statutory deadline in February 2022.

Answer · Shona Robison: It is not possible to estimate how much households have spent in total on installing these alarms during the six months before the statutory deadline in February 2022 as the number of households installing alarms during that period is not known. Estimates o…

29 Aug 2022 · Written Question

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 · Tom Arthur: 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/que…

29 Aug 2022 · Written Question

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 · Tom Arthur: 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 £2…

29 Aug 2022 · Written Question

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 · Tom Arthur: 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. …

29 Aug 2022 · Written Question

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 · Tom Arthur: 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 U…

29 Aug 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has received from (a) business and (b) trade representative organisations following the announcement of its emergency budget review.

Answer · John Swinney: The Scottish Government and senior officials engage regularly with business leaders, representative organisations and industry bodies. During those conversations business have called for measures relating to the cost crisis including: energy price cap for bus…

27 Aug 2022 · Written Question

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 · Tom Arthur: 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 Valuati…

29 Jul 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported unscheduled closures of community pharmacies, what discussions it has had with (a) pharmacists and (b) pharmacy associations since 1 January 2022 regarding any concerns expressed by pharmacists on this issue. 

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government meets regularly with stakeholders who are responsible for the provision of community pharmaceutical care including Health Boards, Community Pharmacy Scotland (the recognised representative body of pharmacy owners) as set out in Regulat…

29 Jul 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce any impact on patients in NHS (a) Tayside and (b) Fife, in light of the reported rising number of unscheduled closures of community pharmacies. 

Answer · Humza Yousaf: While pharmacy closures can occur, this on the whole represents a small proportion of the network and is often limited to a small proportion of the required model hours. The Scottish Government continue to work with all Health Boards and community pharmacies …

17 Jul 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government by when it anticipates that all registered defibrillators will be included in the defibrillator App that is used by ambulance crews to locate seriously ill patients.    

Answer · Maree Todd: The National Defibrillator Network Project, “The Circuit” developed by British Heart Foundation and Microsoft, is a UK-wide registry of defibrillators. It integrates with the existing Scottish Ambulance Service defibrillator database. In an incident of cardia…

17 Jul 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many state secondary schools have had defibrillators installed, broken down by local authority

Answer · Maree Todd: I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00689 on 2 July 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at Written questions and answers | Scottish Parliament…

17 Jul 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many state primary schools have had defibrillators installed, broken down by local authority.

Answer · Maree Todd: I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00689 on 2 July 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at Written questions and answers | Scottish Parliament…

30 Jun 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will confirm which budget line has been used to provide £65 million to the war effort in Ukraine.

Answer · Tom Arthur: The £65 million of funding being provided by the Scottish Government to support the war effort in Ukraine is capital funding that will be provided via the carried forward balance in the Scotland Reserve. The Provisional Outturn statement on 23rd June advised…

30 Jun 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland statistics for 2021-22.

Answer · Kate Forbes: The Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland statistics publication for 2021-22 will be published on 24 August 2022.

21 Jun 2022 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the role that the COVID-19 booster vaccination programme will play in its Covid Recovery Strategy.

24 May 2022 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what lessons can be learnt from Reform Scotland’s recent publication about the future of the Scottish National Investment Bank.

9 May 2022 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it will respond to the UK Government’s consultation, launched on 9 May, regarding the proposed expansion of its Warm Home Discount scheme.

14 Apr 2022 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister whether she can provide an update on the Scottish Government's strategy to include libraries in the policy to address the attainment gap.

22 Mar 2022 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the impact on travel in Scotland of the recent changes to the Highway Code.