MPAS welcomes Scottish aggregates tax alignment

The Mineral Products Association Scotland (MPAS), has welcomed the Scottish Government’s decision to align the newly devolved Scottish Aggregates Tax (SAT) with the UK Aggregates Levy for 2026–27.

Scottish quarries produce up to 30 million tonnes of aggregates each year for use in infrastructure, public works and housing, with some of the material transported to England.

As a newly devolved tax, MPAS says factors such as cross-border movement of materials will require bedding in before the Scottish Government can even think about diverging the rate of tax charged, which could have a distortionary impact on the aggregates market.

The concerns expressed by MPAS are reinforced by data in a study commissioned by the Scottish Government to examine claims that the new SAT could be used to increase recycling. MPAS has written to Minister for Public Finance Ivan McKee expressing serious doubts about the quality of the research and the data available, and called for a significant improvement in understanding of the market before attempting to use tax to change behaviour.

Alan Doak, MPAS director, said: “The decision to align the tax rate is sensible; with a newly devolved tax and pretty poor data on the market there are no grounds for diverging from the rate of the UK levy once the tax is devolved. We recommend that the Scottish Government engages the sector through the Scottish Minerals Forum that the Minister for Public Finance has agreed to establish, both to ensure the tax works well and to explore how to improve the data so that we can have a better discussion about how to deliver the policy goals the Scottish Government wants to see.”