Meeting of the Parliament 19 March 2026 [Draft]
Amendments 1, 2, 3 and 17 to 20 are technical amendments in connection with the bill’s provisions that introduce a new basis for setting the visitor levy and the associated ability for local authorities to switch from one basis to another. The amendments ensure that the provisions that govern the basis and setting of a levy for new schemes will apply in a similar way whenever an existing scheme is modified.
Amendment 1 ensures that the power that prevents a new scheme from imposing a mixture of levies that are based on fixed amounts and percentage rates also applies whenever an existing scheme is modified. Amendments 2 and 3 ensure that requirements on setting a fixed amount of levy for a new scheme also apply whenever an existing percentage-based scheme is modified to set the levy on a fixed-amount basis. Amendments 17 to 20 achieve the same effect when a scheme is modified to set the levy on a percentage-rate basis rather than as a fixed amount.
Amendment 24 amends section 7 of the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 and allows for a local authority, when both introducing and modifying a scheme, to specify a maximum number of nights of stay to which the levy applies. It also requires a local authority to consult before specifying any such maximum.
Amendments 7, 21 and 22 are consequential on the removal from the bill at stage 2 of the option to set a levy as a fixed amount on a per person, per night basis. Amendment 7 updates a cross-reference in section 26 of the 2024 act relating to returns so that it refers instead to section 6A. Amendment 21 removes the requirement for levy schemes to specify the method by which a fixed amount of levy is to be calculated. That is already covered by new section 6A. Amendment 22 removes a redundant cross-reference to the method specified in a scheme for calculating a levy.
I move amendment 1.