At yesterday’s Finance and Sustainable Growth Question Time, Margaret pressed the Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism for more details on the proposed retail levy.

In his response the Minister failed to explain how the levy, which will take more than £100 million in tax over three years from the retail sector, will help to tackle unemployment, especially amongst young people.

 Commenting, Margaret said:

 “The retail sector employs 240,000 people and remains the largest private sector employer in Scotland.

 A third of those employees are under 25 and many young people get their first job opportunity in retail.

 A new Scotland-only tax in the form of the retail levy, will threaten jobs by taking more than £100million over three years from this sector.

 Little wonder, therefore, that the Minister was unable to explain how the introduction of this tax would help achieve the Scottish Government’s stated objective to prioritise tackling employment especially amongst young people.”