The Non-Domestic Rates (Liability for Unoccupied Properties) (Scotland) Bill - Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment

Section 4: Additional implementation considerations

Enforcement/ compliance

Responsibility for the day-to-day administration of the NDR system, including the billing and collection of taxes, rests with each of Scotland’s 32 local authorities.

The Bill will, if passed, bring the law into alignment with the position as intended, as universally understood, and as operated in practice by local authorities, ratepayers, and their professional advisers.

It will be for local authorities to enforce and comply with the Bill, and there are no concerns over this given they have already been operating in practice since 1 April 2023 as if there were a legal basis to levy rates on unoccupied properties.

UK, EU and International Regulatory Alignment and Obligations

Internal Market/ Intra-UK Trade

No intra-UK regulatory impacts and interactions have been identified.

International Trade Implications

No implications for international trade have been identified.

EU Alignment consideration

No implications for EU alignment have been identified.

Legal Aid

This measure has no identified implications for individuals' right to access to justice through availability of legal aid and possible expenditure from the legal aid fund, and no identified impacts on the number of people seeking legal assistance or being taken through the courts.

Digital impact

This measure has no identified digital impact.

The Bill would create a proper and permanent legal basis for the NDR system to continue working as it has been in practice since 1 April 2023, so there would be no practical change to the way the system is administered or how ratepayers interact with it, either online or offline.

Business forms

No new forms for business would be introduced.