8. To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made regarding plans to support bed and breakfasts that are not on the rates system and were not eligible to apply to the Covid-19 hardship scheme solely because they did not have a business bank account. (S5O-04395)

We are providing considerable financial support to the tourism sector, which includes B and B businesses that do not have a business bank account and were not previously eligible for support for that reason. Three million pounds has been made available—repurposed from the newly self-employed hardship fund—and applications are expected to open on 15 June. I am informed that, by tomorrow, there should be clear and concise instruction on how and where to complete applications in each local authority area.

The cabinet secretary has covered my supplementary.

I thank the cabinet secretary for responding to my campaign to support small B and Bs that do not pay business rates. Will he also support my campaign to get those small B and Bs 100 per cent council tax relief because they will not benefit from 100 per cent business rates relief?

The history of the matter is straightforward. The grant support was initially provided to tourism businesses that pay business rates. Many bed and breakfast businesses do not pay business rates, although the owners pay council tax because they live in their own house, as we all do.

The gap was where we failed to provide the grant systems for those small businesses—namely, bed and breakfasts and those without business bank accounts. We have now sought to fill that gap. Mr Mountain is shaking his head, but we have filled that gap. However, we do not grant council tax relief for other businesspeople who pay business rates.

It would be somewhat anomalous and a bit of a surprising commitment from the Scottish Conservatives to grant personal council tax relief for one group in society when other hard-working business people pay their own. I am afraid that I must be candid: I will not support that campaign. I do not know how much it costs, nor whether it is an official Scottish Conservative campaign—I would be interested to find that out later.

In the interim, I am delighted that we have equalised the playing field by making grant finance available for hard-working businesses and bed and breakfast establishments throughout the country.

14:23 Meeting suspended.

14:30 On resuming—