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The Scottish Government met with the Non-Domestic Rates Consultative Group, which includes representatives of the hospitality sector, on 5 February to discuss potential additional measures for Scotland following the Chancellor’s announcement of further relief for pubs and music venues in England.

Decisions on Budget are made in the context of the prevailing economic conditions and government priorities. We have had to consider how best to target support within limited finances.

Internal Scottish Government estimates are that the non-domestic rates (NDR) revenue raised from properties liable for the Higher Property Rate (HPR) will be around £2.7 billion in 2026-27, of which around £648 million is expected to be raised from properties in the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) sectors. These figures have been estimated using data from the Scottish Assessors Association’s draft NDR valuation roll for 2026-27 as at 11 December 2025 and councils’ billing system data as at 1 June 2025.

Table 1 provides a further breakdown of revenue raised from each of the RHL sectors respectively. The identification of properties in the RHL sectors are based on criteria used to identify eligible properties for the purpose of forecasting relief costs.

The breakdown of HPR revenue presented in Table 2 uses property class as business-sector classifications are not available. 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.

Note that these estimates do not adjust NDR bills other than for estimates of relief that properties may benefit from in 2026-27. Any potential changes to NDR bills resulting from, for example, appeals or the application of backdated reliefs, are not accounted for in the figures provided in this answer.

Table 1: Estimate of revenue raised from HPR, RHL properties, 2026-27

The company has engaged in discussions directly with Scottish Enterprise about their current and future training needs. These discussions are ongoing, and Scottish Enterprise is proactively offering support to develop a comprehensive training plan that will address the future needs of the workforce. The company have not accessed any training support as yet.

The Scottish Government does not centrally manage the use of Artificial Intelligence across our public services.

Scotland’s AI Strategy provides the overarching high-level principles that ensures a consistent approach to adhere to those principles of being transparent, ethical, and inclusive with the use of Artificial Intelligence across the public sector. The Scottish Government provides public sector wide AI guidance aligned with the Strategy and UK Government generative AI guidance. In addition, the Scottish AI Register, which is mandatory for Scottish Government and core agencies supports safe, transparent, and consistent AI development and deployment, while enabling public participation and sharing best practice across the public sector.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43271 on 6 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

The Scottish Government was still in the process of compiling and quality assuring the costs at the time of issuing the response. We routinely publish total costs approximately three months in arrears to allow all costs and expenses to be submitted, ensuring that the figures released into the public domain are accurate and complete.

Guidance for officials responding to parliamentary questions (PQs) and Freedom of Information (FOI) requests encourages alignment between the standard applied for both. In some instances, there may be examples where information is not available for release in response to a PQ but may subsequently be released in response to a later FOI request when that information has since become available. This may also result from the differences between the regimes, including differences in legal framework and expectations in timescale for responses.

All requests made under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) and Parliamentary Questions are responded to on the basis of information available at the time of response.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43271 on 6 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

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-43271 on 6 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