Pubs and hospitality businesses correspondence regarding business rates: FOI release

Information requested

“Could you supply all correspondence received by the Scottish Government from pubs and hospitality businesses about business rates as well as any responses to these emails/letters, from the last two months?”.

Response

In responding to your request I have considered “hospitality business” to be those listed in the Schedule to The Non-Domestic Rates (Hospitality Relief) (Scotland) Regulations 2025, which includes:

• Bed and breakfast accommodation
• Camping site
• Caravan
• Caravan site
• Chalet, holiday hut and bothy
• Guest house, hotel and hostel
• Public house (i.e. pub)
• Restaurant
• Self-catering holiday accommodation
• Timeshare accommodation
• Small music venue

Along with correspondence received directly from hospitality businesses, correspondence received from organisations that represent at least one type of hospitality business, or politicians writing on behalf of their constituent(s) who either owns or has an interest in a hospitality business have been considered to be within scope of the FOI request.

Based upon the above, I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) and section 33(1)(b) (commercial interests) of FOISA applies.

The exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information requested because it is the personal data of a third party, i.e. the names or contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

An exemption under section 33(1)(b) applies to a small amount of the information requested. The exemption applies because disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the commercial interests of a company. This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption.

Information in some of the documents is not considered to be within scope of your request, and has therefore been redacted.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202600506012 - Information Released - Annex

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