Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-32369 on 8 January 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government has no plans to implement the ‘Right Care, Right Place’ model. Instead we are working with our partners, including Police Scotland, through the Mental Health Unscheduled Care Network to ensure that anyone in need of mental health care and support gets the right care, in the right place, at the right time, regardless of where or what time of day they present – there should be No Wrong Door. Through this work, we have supported Police Scotland with:

• Directing calls received by Police Scotland’s C3 Division to the NHS 24 Mental Health Hub where they have identified that the caller is requiring mental health support, thereby avoiding the need to deploy officers; and
• accessing 24/7 clinical advice on the best onward care outcomes for the individual when police officers are supporting an individual on scene, thereby avoiding the need to attend A&E unless that is where the individual needs to be cared for.

We continue to build on these developments. On 12 February the Scottish Government published the Framework for Collaboration and the Partnership Delivery Group’s Collaborative Commitments plan, which outline the principles and actions which will contribute to our aim that resources are deployed appropriately and that unnecessary demand on officers is reduced.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested.

Our police officers are the best paid in the UK, at the minimum and maximum of each rank, and I welcome the outcome of the police pay arbitration process, which means that police officers in Scotland will receive an uplift of 4.75%, backdated to 1 April 2024, in their March salaries.

This recognises the hard work and valuable contribution that police officers make, and reflects this Government’s continued commitment to investing in policing.

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold information on the operational base levels for officers. Officer deployment nationally and locally is quite rightly a matter for the Chief Constable.

The Memorandum of Understanding is a jointly drafted and agreed document between the Parole Board for Scotland (PBS) and Scottish Ministers. The MOU defines the relationship and interaction between Parole Board for Scotland and the Scottish Government.

The Budget 2025-26 freezes the Basic Property Rate for properties with a rateable value up to and including £51,000, delivering the lowest such rate in the UK for the seventh year in a row. It also provides a package of non-domestic rates reliefs worth an estimated £731 million, including the most generous small business rates relief in the UK, a 40% relief for hospitality premises liable for the Basic Property Rate, capped at £110,000 per business, and a continuation of 100% relief for hospitality premises located on islands as defined by the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018, and in prescribed remote areas (Cape Wrath, Knoydart, and Scoraig), capped at £110,000 per business.

Based on Scottish Government analysis, using the non-domestic rates valuation roll and a snapshot of councils’ billing systems, Hospitality Reliefs in Scotland could benefit up to 13,000 properties, including up to 5,000 hotels, public houses and restaurants. Of these, we estimate that this relief, in combination with existing reliefs, could allow up to 300 hotels, public houses and restaurants to pay no rates at all in 2025-26 with up to 300 more benefiting from the 100% relief for hospitality premises in island and specified remote areas.

The precise number of premises that will benefit from these measures will depend on take-up of the relief and the ways in which businesses with more than one eligible property choose to claim relief in cases where the value of their relief is limited by the £110,000 per-business cap.

Further information on impacts with respect to the 100% relief for hospitality premises on islands and in specified remote areas has been published in an Island Community Impact Assessment which is available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2025/40/resources.

There are a number of factors which make it challenging to estimate the full economic impact of non-domestic rates relief. These include:

?where a relief is available nationwide comparisons with a control group of similar non-domestic properties would be limited by important differences, such as being a different property type or being outside of Scotland, allowing few meaningful comparisons;

• differences in the characteristics of businesses and organisations eligible for a particular relief;
• the unpredictability of the behavioural response to any changes in tax liabilities;
• the effects of a relief on businesses or organisations that have multiple properties, not all of which qualify for a given relief, or may be subject to the cap on the overall value of relief;
• difficulties in matching non-domestic rates valuation roll data to business level datasets to understand the effects of a relief on businesses economic outcomes and behaviour makes a business-based analysis resource intensive.

Since the independent Barclay Review of Non-Domestic Rates, a range of key reforms to the NDR system have been implemented to support growth, improve administration and increase fairness.

Following the implementation of the final recommendations of the Barclay Review on 1 April 2023, a consultative sub-group on Non-Domestic Rates (NDR) was established under the New Deal for Business to advise on further enhancements to the NDR system. This sub-group provides a forum for ongoing dialogue and engagement on NDR issues with members who come from a range of business representative organisations, including the hospitality sector, as well as Scottish Assessors and local authorities who are also represented.

The Scottish Government has no plans to consult on a long-term replacement for the NDR system in advance of the next revaluation on 1 April 2026 but remains committed to the NDR sub-group and to working with the hospitality sector on the long-term issues that have been raised by the sector.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The management of the Police Scotland Estate is an operational matter, and is the responsibility of the Chief Constable under the scrutiny of the Scottish Police Authority.

In line with its Estates Masterplan which will continue to have a community focus, Police Scotland will undertake public consultation on its plans for public facing properties, including for disposal, in advance of any decisions being made.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The management of the Police Scotland Estate is an operational matter, and is the responsibility of the Chief Constable under the scrutiny of the Scottish Police Authority.

It is for Police Scotland to determine its estate requirements on a local and divisional basis. This will be a key consideration in relation to the delivery of their Estates Masterplan.

The Scottish Government is committed to ongoing engagement and dialogue with representatives of the hospitality sector including through the New Deal for Business consultative sub-group on Non-Domestic Rates and regular roundtable meetings with Ministers.

The valuation of all non-domestic property is a matter for the Scottish Assessors who are independent of local and Scottish Government.