5. I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests in relation to tourism.

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the income that is expected to be lost in 2020, what support it plans to offer the tourism sector until April 2021. (S5O-04392)

We are providing more than £2.3 billion of support, including almost £900 million of non-domestic rates relief, £1.3 billion in business grants schemes, and £185 million targeted at small businesses and the newly self-employed. We have provided bespoke assistance via the pivotal enterprise resilience fund and the creative, tourism and hospitality enterprises hardship fund. Additionally, we recently announced that £3 million will go to bed and breakfasts that do not have business bank accounts, providing them with a vital lifeline.

I am in continuous dialogue with the United Kingdom Government’s Nigel Huddleston about the further support that I believe will be required to help tourism to get to the other side of this dreadful period.

The support has obviously helped a lot of businesses. However, I have previously raised questions on behalf of constituents who have businesses renting out marquees, providing mobile catering and portable toilets, and so on, and I have had no satisfactory answers. That group in the tourism and hospitality sector is receiving no support whatsoever because of various anomalies. Given that such businesses are now looking at having no income until summer 2021 at the earliest, I ask again what specific support the cabinet secretary will give to help those businesses survive.

If the member wishes to raise with me any individual case in his area, of course I will look at that specifically. I should just say, however, that we set up the bespoke pivotal enterprise resilience fund and the creative, tourism and hospitality enterprises hardship fund precisely because many businesses missed out on qualifying from the initial grant fund, which was based on premises that were classified as tourism, hospitality or leisure businesses on the rateable valuation roll. That is why we did that in Scotland.

I am bound to point out that there is, as I understand it, no equivalent of the pivotal enterprise resilience fund in England, so we have gone further for Mr Burnett and his constituents than his own party has in England. That is something that he might welcome.

The current criteria for property-related grants in many tourism businesses have a cut-off rateable value of £51,000, and most tourism businesses are not eligible for the pivotal enterprise grant scheme. Will the Government look at extending support to those businesses that are above the £51,000 threshold?

As Mr Smyth has recognised, the pivotal enterprise resilience fund has been a source of potential grant finance to many businesses whose rateable value is in excess of £51,000.

That is a bespoke fund and it is available, but not all businesses qualify. There are rules—there have to be rules—and I am very sorry that we cannot support every business. However, that is the reality. I know that many businesses in his part of Scotland have qualified. Although I could, I do not think that I should mention individual cases.

The last point that I will make is that I have raised with Nigel Huddleston on several occasions, including in writing, the case for a UK-wide approach that would extend the support to businesses with rateable values above £51,000. Scottish Chambers of Commerce has done so as well. However, that has been rebuffed; the Treasury has said no. I think that that is mistaken and that the decision should be reviewed. If it were reviewed, any additional finance would, I believe, be a good investment for the future. It would help those businesses survive and thereby generate more taxes, contributing more to their communities in years to come, rather than risking the possibility of their failing to survive this crisis.