Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5O-02683

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 12 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making with its plan to equip an additional 500,000 people with CPR skills by 2020.

Question reference: S5W-20272

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 29 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 10 December 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much was raised in each of the last five years through levies that generate funding for (a) Business Improvement Districts and (b) Scotland’s Improvement Districts, broken down by district.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the annual levies collected by Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in Scotland. Each BID’s business plan will contain estimates of their levy for the duration of their term.

Scotland’s Improvement Districts is the new national delivery partner for BIDs in Scotland. Operated by Scotland’s Towns Partnership it supports existing, developing and emerging BIDs including support for new models of BIDs which have greater capacity through wider public, private and community partnerships.

Question reference: S5W-19991

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 November 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 29 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it supports the introduction of an annual Scottish Finance Bill as a means of identifying and addressing changes to devolved tax legislation, as recommended in the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and Chartered Institute of Taxation publication, Devolving Taxes across the UK: Learning from the Scottish Experience.

Question reference: S5W-19988

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 November 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 29 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recommendations of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and Chartered Institute of Taxation publication, Devolving Taxes across the UK: Learning from the Scottish Experience.

Question reference: S5W-19990

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 November 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 29 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in developing “a new approach to the planning, management and implementation of changes to devolved taxes with the aim of bringing greater certainty, transparency and efficiency”, as set out on page 61 of its Programme for Government.

Question reference: S5W-19989

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 November 2018
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 29 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve public awareness and understanding of devolved taxes, in light of the poll commissioned by the Chartered Institute of Taxation, which found that 84% of people in Scotland strongly agreed or tended to agree that they need better information about how taxes are decided in Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to a collaborative and open approach to tax policy development, characterised by regular consultation with taxpayers, industry representatives and professional bodies, to ensure that tax policy is better understood and informed by a diverse range of views. For example, in advance of income tax changes earlier this year the Scottish Government took the unprecedented action of publishing a discussion paper on the future of income tax.

However, raising public understanding of tax is not something that can be addressed by government alone and the Scottish Government would welcome any further suggestions from Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, the Chartered Institute of Taxation, and other organisations on wider initiatives that could help support this.

Question reference: S5O-02627

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 November 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the implications of the draft withdrawal agreement between the UK and EU for constitutional relations between the Scottish and UK governments.

Question reference: S5O-02559

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much will arise in Barnett consequentials from the reduction in business rates that was announced in the UK budget, and whether it will allocate all of this to support Scotland's retail sector.

Question reference: S5W-19635

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 7 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its June 2018 consultation on non-domestic rates reform stating that it has “committed to implement” the out-of-town and online business rates levy pilots, whether the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Economy and Fair Work’s reported comment that he has “no plan” to introduce the levy represents a change of its policy.

The Scottish Government has consistently stated that it has taken no decisions on the Barclay Review recommendations since the publication of Barclay Implementation: A consultation on non-domestic rates reform . This includes Recommendation 5b) as referred to in the consultation paper: "A new power to enable councils to impose an additional levy on rates in certain circumstances."

The consultation concluded on 17th September and we are currently analysing the responses. An analysis of the responses will be published in due course in line with good practice.

Question reference: S5W-19613

Asked by: Bill Bowman, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 7 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5O-02379 by Kate Forbes on 20 September 2018 (Official Report, c. 1), in light of the Barclay report recommending that the Large Business Supplement (LBS) should be reduced to 1.3p "in 2020-21, and sooner if it becomes affordable to do so", and the Minister for Public Finance and Digital Economy's statement that "Barclay recommended that we lower the large business supplement when affordable", what its position is on the accuracy of the Minister’s statement, and whether it will implement this recommendation in full and by 2020-21.