Barclay Implementation Advisory Group: Appeals sub-group final report

1. Introduction

The Barclay Review of Non-Domestic Rates (NDR) concluded with a report published on 22 August 2017.  Following an initial response on 12 September 2017, the Scottish Government published an Implementation Plan^[1] on 14 December 2017. 

The Barclay Implementation Advisory Group (“the Group”) was established to inform advice to Scottish Ministers in respect of the implementation detail of a number of the Barclay recommendations. The early meetings of the Group focussed primarily on the recommendations requiring primary legislation and led to the Group endorsing a consultation paper^[2] which initiated a consultation running from 25 June 2018 to 17 September 2018. The Group published its Final Report on 21 February 2019.^[3]

Informed by the consultation responses and the Barclay Implementation Advisory Group’s Report, the Government drafted the Non-Domestic Rates (Scotland) Bill (“the Bill”) to implement the Barclay Review recommendations that it had accepted and require primary legislation. The Bill was introduced by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Economy and Fair Work, Derek Mackay MSP, on 25 March 2019.

At its first meeting the Group agreed to establish the Appeals sub-Group and the Billing sub-Group. The Appeals sub-Group in turn later established a Working Group which considered the technical detail of the reforms to the appeals system.