The Visitor Levy (Interest on Unpaid Levy and Penalties) (Scotland) Regulations 2026

Made: 13th January 2026

Laid before the Scottish Parliament: 15th January 2026

Coming into force: 1st April 2026

The Scottish Ministers make the following Regulations in exercise of the power conferred by section 68 of the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024[^f00001] and all other powers enabling them to do so.

Citation and commencement

1

These Regulations may be cited as the Visitor Levy (Interest on Unpaid Levy and Penalties) (Scotland) Regulations 2026 and come into force on 1 April 2026.

Interpretation

2

In these Regulations, “the Act” means the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024.

Meaning of “Bank of England rate”

3

• (1) In these Regulations “Bank of England rate” for a day means the official bank rate as last announced at a meeting of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee held prior to that day.

• (2) Where a day falls within three working days of a meeting at which an announcement referred to in paragraph (1) was made, the “Bank of England rate” for that day means the rate as determined under that paragraph as if that meeting had not taken place.

• (3) In paragraph (2), “working day” means any day other than—

• (a) a Saturday,

• (b) a Sunday, or

• (c) a day which is a bank holiday under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971[^f00002] in Scotland.

Rate of Interest

4

For the purposes of section 66 (interest on unpaid levy) and section 67 (interest on penalties) the following formula—

$( B a n k o f E n g l a n d r a t e + 2 . 5 ) 365$

applies to calculate the specified rate of interest as a percentage per day.

Signed

IVAN MCKEE — Authorised to sign by the Scottish Ministers — 13th January 2026

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Explanatory Note

These Regulations specify the rate of interest that applies to any unpaid visitor levy due under section 29 (payment of levy) and unpaid penalties imposed under Chapter 3 of Part 5 of the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024.

Regulation 3 defines the Bank of England rate and the meaning of working day. It also provides for a period of three days before a new Bank of England rate will be applied to the interest calculation.

Regulation 4 provides a formula for calculating the applicable daily rate of interest.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 2024 asp 8.

[^f00002]: 1971 c. 80. Paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 was amended by section 1 of St Andrew's Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Act 2007 (asp 2).