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Scottish public finances continue to face a challenging fiscal environment, with public services having to meet growing demand despite increasingly challenging settlements. Despite this, the Scottish Government remains committed to working with partners to continue to grow the community energy sector and has allocated £8.5 million to support community and local energy in 2026-27. This will support more communities across Scotland to participate in, and benefit from, the energy transition by providing funding for them to develop renewable energy generation, heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency projects.

Internal Scottish Government estimates are that extending the 15% relief to non-domestic rates (NDR) for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) properties liable for the Basic or Intermediate Property Rate, capped at £110,000 per business per year, announced in the draft Budget 2026-27, to include premises in these sectors liable for the Higher Property Rate, would cost an additional £36m in 2026-27, rising to £37m in 2027-28 and £38m in 2028-29.

The identification of properties in the RHL sectors are based on criteria used to identify eligible properties for the purpose of forecasting relief costs. Property class is used by the Scottish Assessors to describe the type of a property and may not accurately reflect its use in all cases. For example, a property classified as a ‘shop’ may in fact be used to offer financial services.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43554 on 12 February 2026. 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.

Consideration of the peer review undertaken on the research paper from Malcolm McMillan on the roles and functions of the Scottish Law Officers has taken slightly longer than anticipated and is now concluded. The paper has been updated accordingly and has now reached proposed final version, any further action is currently under active ministerial consideration.

The Scottish Public Pensions Agency has four full-time-equivalent staff working on the administration of the Matthews Second Options exercise. This exercise is being delivered in partnership with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The valuation of all non-domestic property is a matter for the Scottish Assessors who are independent of central and local government. By law, Assessors must ascertain a Net Annual Value (NAV) for all subjects entered on the Valuation Roll. This is defined as “the rent at which the lands and heritages might reasonably be expected to let from year to year” under section 6(8) of the Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act 1956.

Scottish Assessors produce Practice Notes for different types of subjects and these are accessible at: 2026 Practice Notes – Scottish Assessors. The Practice Note for Licensed premises can be found at Licensed Premises.

The essence of the valuation scheme for licensed premises is the Hypothetical Achievable Turnover (HAT). Assessors identify the relationship between available rents and turnovers for licensed premises at the relevant valuation date. This relationship can then be used to derive a scheme of value which can be used to value all licensed premises. The calculation of HAT does not incorporate operating costs such as energy or staffing costs.

The non-domestic rates revaluation 2026 draft valuation roll statistics, originally released on 13 January and available at Non-domestic rates revaluation 2026: draft valuation roll statistics, were updated on 11 February to include a breakdown of changes by council area and property class. This information is now available in Table 2a.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43533 on 12 February 2026. 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.

From 1 April 2026, all ScotRail fares will be frozen for the financial year 2026-2027, including Season Tickets and Flexipass.

This will be welcome news for passengers as we aim to make Scotland’s Railway as affordable as possible to maintain the attractiveness of rail as a travel option and encourage new passengers onto our railway. That is why we also removed peak fares from ScotRail services for good in September last year.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has experienced recruitment challenges in its audiology service, which has affected appointment times. To mitigate this, the Board has insourced qualified audiologists from the private sector to work alongside substantive staff, and additional mid-week and weekend clinics are now running under senior supervision.

We know many people are still waiting too long and this is not good enough. This year we have allocated over £135.5 million to Health Boards to reduce long waits, resulting in thousands more appointments and procedures. To build on this progress, extra funding of up to £20 million is being made available to Health Boards for the last quarter of the year, with the focus on Boards and specialities with long waits.