Hansard

I will address some of the comments that have been made. There has been a debate about the supplement provision that the bill will enact. Gavin Brown characterised the situation correctly when he said that it is a matter of judgment. Everybody can see that there could be a risk to the Government’s objectives for the housing market in Scotland, and in particular to one of our key objectives in our approach to land and buildings transaction tax in the original legislation, which was to give first-time buyers better prospects of progressing on the property ladder. That objective could be undermined by the legislative changes that are being made south of the border and their implications for the property market in Scotland. The decision in principle is undoubtedly a decision that was made on balance, but I have been anxious to ensure that the Government’s policy objectives, which have been reinforced by the steps that we have taken on land and buildings transaction tax, are in no way jeopardised by that proposal from the UK Government.

Jackie Baillie’s comments were an explicit acknowledgement of one of the challenges that we now face in our parliamentary budgeting and financial processes. We need to respond at greater speed than our core longstanding budget process allows. That was a helpful recognition of the issues that arise out of the devolution of additional tax-raising powers to the Scottish Parliament and the need for tax decisions to be made, and an acknowledgement that tax decisions sometimes have to be taken within a smaller window than expenditure decisions, given that behavioural implications can arise.

We will not resolve those issues this afternoon. However, the discussions about the bill and the scrutiny that the Finance Committee has given to the measures in the fiscal framework and the Scottish Fiscal Commission Bill, to which we will come later in the week, as well the wider agenda around the budget process, are all live discussions that Parliament needs to reflect on. I am sure that the Finance Committee will reflect them in its legacy paper.

Today, I put on the record the Government’s willingness to engage constructively with Parliament on those discussions. We all need to understand the parameters and processes within which we are working, in what is now a different scenario from the one that was envisaged when some of the veterans of Parliament—I consider myself to be one of them—were involved in the production of the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000.

The other major issue in the debate was that of the grace period. We touched on some of the detail of that in considering the stage 3 amendments and we discussed it at stage 2. Mr McDonald fairly characterised the Finance Committee’s recommendation—it argued for a grace period to be provided for in the legislation. I responded constructively to that at stage 2 and provided for a grace period that will not have the effect of undermining the central tenet of the land and buildings transaction tax legislation, which is that it is important that transactions are registered with Revenue Scotland. That should enable all the appropriate tax to be collected and should mean that there is no diminution of that important principle. I will continue to reflect on those issues as we see the implementation of the legislation and, if I consider that there is any requirement for the issue to be addressed, appropriate provisions will be drawn to Parliament’s attention.

I acknowledge that the bill has been taken through Parliament at some speed and I am grateful to everyone who has participated in that process to enable it to happen. I give the reassurance that the Government will reflect carefully on the implementation of the legislation to ensure that its central purpose is delivered as part of the process.