*UPDATE: The Scottish Government introduced the Non Domestic Rates (Scotland) Bill to the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Fiscal Commission has published supplementary costings to the Bill. The Bill will soon begin its Stage 3 process*

The Barclay Review of non-domestic rates in Scotland published its report in 2017 making a series of recommendations to the Scottish Government on changes that should be made to the business rates system. The Scottish Government accepted most of the recommendations and in 2018 published a consultation on how best to implement the proposed changes (see a summary of the questions below). The Scottish Government published a summary of responses document in February 2019 as well as the Barclay Implementation Advisory Group’s Final Report.

The Bill will make provision for changes to charity rates relief, most independent schools will no longer be eligible to apply for mandatory charitable rate relief. Independent special schools and specialist independent music schools will not be affected by this change.

The proposal to impose a 10% supplementary charge on property that has been vacant for over 5 years will not be taken forward. The proposal to restrict empty property relief for listed buildings to 2 years will be taken forward but the threshold will be 5 years and this can be dealt with by secondary legislation.

An impact report from the Scottish independent consultancy BiGGAR Economics has found that Edinburgh’s private schools – which educate 25 per cent of the city’s pupils – may face a £9 million increase in costs in consequence of the Scottish Government partial removal of their business rates relief, combined with a rise in teachers’ pay and the cost of pensions contributions