Chamber and committees

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who reply in writing within 20 days.

Cumulative awards and expenditure for Discretionary Housing Payments in 2019-20 to the end of March 2020 are available in the official statistics publication here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/discretionary
-housing-payments-in-scotland-1-april-2019-to-31-march-2020/ .

The figures to end of March 2020 show that there were 128,650 awards with a value of £66.0 million.

We will publish awards value data covering April and May 2020 on 7 July 2020 as pre-announced here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/official-statistics-forthcoming-publications/ .

To raise awareness of the extended notice to leave and notice of proceedings periods under the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020, the Scottish Government launched a successful eviction rights marketing campaign on 7th April, which reached an estimated 75% of all renters in Scotland. The campaign directed renters to sector specific information on their new rights and the support available to tenants experiencing difficulties paying their rent.

In addition, information was disseminated through stakeholder networks including members of our PRS and Social Rented Sector Resilience Groups. This includes Shelter Scotland and Citizen Advice Scotland, ALACHO Cosla, GWSF and SFHA. We are continuing to work with the Resilience Groups to support and inform our approach to awareness raising and we are in the early stages of working with Public Health Scotland to develop a tenants support toolkit, which would include tenants' rights under the emergency notice periods as well as wider information and advice.

The Scottish Government has no plans to produce a digital national asset register along these lines.

On 18 March 2020, the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture announced a package of support worth £2.2 billion to limit the impact of COVID-19 on the business community. As part of this we are providing a 100% non-domestic rates relief for all retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, which includes premises used wholly or mainly as music venues.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering a fair and sustainable non-domestic rates regime for businesses from all sectors. The Scottish Budget provides the most generous non-domestic rates regime anywhere in the UK, including the small business bonus scheme (SBBS), which is more competitive than any of the equivalent schemes in the rest of the UK and provides up to 100% rates relief for small and medium sized music venues in Scotland.

Information stored on the electronic Property Information Mapping System (ePIMS) which is classed as commercially sensitive includes all information relating to the leases between Scottish Government and its landlords. Lease information includes rent, duration, size of accommodation, rent review and break options, landlord and tenant obligations etc. Releasing lease information publicly could be detrimental to future lease negotiations.

We are giving very careful consideration to the recommendations in the report by the Grouse Moor Management Group (the ‘Werritty Review’).

We will set out our response to the report in due course, which will cover the recommendation on introducing licensing of grouse moor businesses.

Scottish Government use the Electronic Property Information Mapping System (ePIMS) for listing land and building information. Whilst Scottish Government encourages its agencies and non-departmental public bodies to use ePIMS, there are currently no plans to make the use of ePIMS mandatory. Under the terms of the Property: acquisition, disposal and management section of the Scottish Public Finance Manual, holdings of property, plant and equipment should be kept under regular review, using the electronic Property Information Mapping System or the organisations own robust asset management system as appropriate.

Under the terms of the Business Rates Incentivisation Scheme local authorities that exceed their non-domestic rate income target retain 50 per cent of that additional income, the remaining 50 per cent is accounted for in the balance of the Non Domestic Rating Account which is then reflected in the amount available to be distributed back to local authorities as part of the future annual local government finance settlements.

Under the Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM) Scottish Government Directorates and Agencies are to follow best practice in asset management. Industry guidance indicates a review of overarching strategy every three to five years to align property with business needs.