Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that Scotland remains an attractive location for investment. We are currently considering a number of proposals around Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, including transfers of property assets between pension funds and changes in provider as part of the Scottish Government’s overall approach to the planning and management of the devolved taxes.

NHS Tayside is locked into a long term PFI contract and while the Scottish Government position is that parking should be free, due to the prohibitve cost, there is currently no prospect of a buyout of this contract. However we would expect NHS Tayside to keep this under review should that opportunity arise in the future.

NHS Tayside continues to take steps to support parking provision at Ninewells hospital and will continue to engage with the local authority, other NHS Boards, travel planning and public transport organisations to ensure that best alternative solutions to any increase in car use are adopted to support access to hospital facilities. The possibilities of introducing future, 'park and ride' interchange points close to the hospital is something that is to be explored.

The potential to create additional car parking spaces at Ninewells is not currently under consideration.

NHS Tayside have not suspended any elective procedures during the Christmas period. It is however common practice across Boards to reduce elective capacity during the holiday period to ensure appropriate capacity is available to meet the likely increase in emergency admissions.

I have been advised by Tayside Health Board that as part of their winter planning, the Board will be reducing elective capacity for the period 18 December 2017 to 8 January 2018, but have assured me that during that period they will continue to see clinically prioritised elective cases such as cancer patients.

No patient has had their planned operation for that period cancelled, as no one has yet been offered an elective inpatient or day case appointment during that timeframe.

I have written to the Chair of NHS Tayside to make clear that I do not expect any patient to be disadvantaged by the proposals.

The Scottish Government consulted on and introduced a seeding relief for property assets transferring from an Authorised Unit Trust to an Open-ended Investment Company in September 2015. The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that Scotland remains an attractive location for investment. We are currently considering a number of proposals around Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, including a more general seeding relief for Property Authorised Investment funds and Co-authorised Contractual schemes as part of the Scottish Government’s overall approach to the planning and management of the devolved taxes.

An additional 12.5 per cent real terms cap on increases for all but the very largest properties will apply to 2018-19 non-domestic rate bills. Full details of this will be available when the legislation is laid before Parliament.

Ministers attend a variety of engagements, meetings and events during which a range of topics are discussed. A record of those who attended each is not held.

Following the recommendation in the Barclay report for the large business supplement to be reduced, the Scottish Government will consider this, should it become affordable, in the context of future years budgets.

As set out in the recent Programme for Government, the Scottish Government intends to publish a discussion paper on income tax to generate debate before setting the budget for 2018-19. The paper will cover a variety of scenarios, including those proposed by the other parties, and will consider economic impact.

The additional 12.5% real terms cap on 2018-19 rates increases will provide continuing support to offices in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire and all but the very largest hospitality properties across the country, as I set out in my statement to Parliament on 12 September.