Poll Tax Debate

Deputy First Minister John Swinney will call on MSPs to 'put right a historic wrong' today.

He wants Holyrood's Chamber to back Scottish Government plans to protect people from being pursued for ancient poll tax debts.

In light of a surge in voter registration ahead of the independence referendum, some councils had suggested they would use the new data to chase old debts.

Fife Council says it will not pursue outstanding poll tax and insists it would send the wrong message about engagement in the electoral process.

Speaking ahead of the debate, Mr Swinney said:
 
"The poll tax was the worst piece of legislation that the Westminster Government ever inflicted on Scotland.
 
"A Tory Government which Scotland had rejected imposed the tax on Scotland, and – as was confirmed very recently, they were determined that Scotland be a guinea pig for their disastrous tax experiment.
 
"The referendum on independence was a wonderful experience of democratic engagement, bringing people into politics who in some cases hadn’t been involved in decades, if at all, and that can only be a good thing.
 
"But it cannot be right that people fear being on the electoral registers because of decades-old debt relating to a discredited and unjust tax.
 
"Nor is it right that some of the few people paying off poll tax debt are the poorest in society.
 
"On current trends, we are very soon going to be reaching a point where the cost of trying to collect the remaining unpaid council tax exceeds the dwindling sums that are actually collected.
 
"The poll tax is a defunct tax, but it has left a bitter legacy in Scotland - the Scottish Parliament now has the chance to right a historic wrong."

Council Leader, Councillor David Ross, said: "We won't be using this new electoral register to chase-up any outstanding historic poll tax arrears. It is important that as many Fife residents as possible are encouraged to register on the electoral roll and the increase in registration we've seen for the Referendum is very much to be welcomed.  It would send all the wrong messages about engagement in the electoral process if we were to use this new register in such a way.

"The electoral register is only one of a number of sources of information that Fife Council uses as a matter of routine to confirm that council tax discounts are applicable.  This means we don't have to ask everyone who receives a discount to fill in a review form every year and can automatically renew discounts where no changes have occurred.  As usual over the next few months we will be using all this information to check that anyone who is receiving council tax discount is entitled to them."