Hospitality body condemns Scottish first minister’s VAT stance

The Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA) has criticised First Minister John Swinney for failing to back a campaign to cut VAT for hospitality businesses, saying that his actions reveal “a high level of disinterest and contempt” for the industry in Scotland. 

The trade association expressed anger after Member of the Scottish Parliament (SMP) Alyn Smith questioned the First Minister during parliamentary questions on Tuesday (9 June). 

News comes as the SLTA has long called for greater recognition of the licensed hospitality and tourism sectors, noting their importance to the Scottish economy and employment. 

Thanks to the trade group’s efforts, tourism was recently added as a named portfolio at Cabinet Secretary level. 

During the exchange at parliamentary questions, the First Minister referenced interventions from Conservative MSP Stephen Kerr and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar regarding previous tax policies.

Colin Wilkinson, managing director of the SLTA, said: “Rather than giving a straightforward answer to a straightforward question, the First Minister’s deplorable response was more focused on playground bickering and political point-scoring than answering a question, raised by one of his own industry-respected party colleagues Alyn Smith MSP, a champion of the hospitality sector.

“The lack of response, whether positive or negative, in our opinion signals a high level of disinterest and contempt for one of Scotland’s key sectors and contributor to the Scottish economy. It also begs the question of the First Minister as to what he sees as the future role of the hospitality sector, if in his mind it has any part to play at all, in his aims to grow Scotland’s economy.”

Wilkinson added that the previous Conservative government had cut VAT to 5% between 15 July 2020 and 30 September 2021, before setting it at 12.5% until 31 March 2022.

Tuesday’s session concluded with Presiding Officer Kenneth Gibson remarking on how pleased he was that Alyn Smith’s question could “liven the chamber up”, describing it as a “nice ending” to the First Minister’s question time. 

However, for the hospitality industry, this summation was far from helpful, as Wilkinson pointed out that a truly “nice” conclusion would have involved the First Minister providing a substantive answer to the question posed by Smith.

In light of this, the SLTA is putting pressure on the Scottish government to provide a straight forward answer on a potential VAT cut for hospitality. 

Currently, the ‘VAT’s the Problem’ campaign petition has gathered approximately 191,979 signatures in support of reducing VAT to 10% for the hospitality trade.