– in the Scottish Parliament at on 27 August 2020.
Kenneth Gibson
Scottish National Party
4. To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the United Kingdom Government regarding using revenues raised from online retailers to support economic growth in Scotland. (S5O-04512)
Fiona Hyslop
Scottish National Party
Like the Majority of taxes, the digital services tax and the proposed online selling tax are reserved, therefore any revenues will be collected at national level by the UK Government.
Her Majesty’s Treasury does not hypothecate tax revenues, as members will be aware. Instead, through operation of the Barnett formula, the Scottish Government receives a share of UK Government spending on areas that are devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
To date, the Scottish Government has had no conversations on use of revenues from online retailers, but the Scottish Government has regular discussions with ministers and officials from HM Treasury, including as part of the budget process.
Kenneth Gibson
Scottish National Party
It is frustrating that such matters are reserved. Does the Cabinet secretary agree that the impact of the pandemic has accelerated the shift towards online shopping, and that unless there is a balance between high street and online taxation, high streets will continue to decline, thereby reducing choice and employment and leading to falling revenue from non-domestic rates?
Fiona Hyslop
Scottish National Party
The pandemic and lockdown could have a drastic effect on businesses. We have seen variation between online businesses and those on the high street. We will continue to monitor the impact of the pandemic. There is a strong case for ensuring equity between online and high street retail. The pandemic has increased traffic to online retail.
We urge the UK Government to consider all that as it considers the UK budget for 2021 to 2022.
An economic mechanism used by the Treasury to adjust automatically the amounts of public expenditure allocated to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, to reflect changes in spending levels allocated to public services in England, England and Wales or Great Britain as a whole.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
