FOI Request - STL Licensing Fees
Request 101003826899
I am writing under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 to request the following information regarding Short-Term Let (STL) licensing fees:
1. Income and Expenditure
For each financial year since the introduction of STL licensing (from 2023–24 onwards):
a) Total income received from STL licence fees
b) Total costs incurred in administering the STL licensing scheme
Please break costs down by main categories (e.g. staffing, processing, inspections, enforcement, digital systems) and provide any relevant financial documentation or budget papers evidencing this.
2. Fee Setting and Review
a) What assumptions were used when setting fees (e.g. projected licence volumes)?
b) Has the council reviewed fees now that actual application/licence numbers are known? If yes, please provide copies of any internal review, governance papers or minutes.
c) If no review has been undertaken, is one planned?
3. Income Beyond Cost Recovery
a) Has the council generated any income above the costs of running the scheme?
b) If so, how much, and how has this been recorded or allocated?
4. Reference to National Guidance
The Scottish Government’s More Homes Division stated that “the majority of the fees published so far by local authorities… fall within the estimate of £218 to £436 for a three-year licence predicted in the Scottish Government’s Business Regulatory Impact Assessment”. Please confirm how your current STL fees compare to this range, and how they reflect Scottish Government guidance to tailor fees by licence type and accommodation size.
Response 21-08-2025
1. Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act (FOISA) 2002 – “Information Not Held” is applicable.
Information is not available either as a whole or in a breakdown. The licence type has a three-year cycle. The total income for that period will not be known until after the end of the three-year cycle. There is no income from STL licensing, other than application fees. Similarly, the total expenditure purely for STL licensing has not and will not be calculated before the end of the three-year cycle. In fact, it will not be possible to calculate this precisely, in isolation, at all. Licensing is a single service for all licence types. As an accounting function, on costs have to be split between licence types and that has yet to be done and is not a precise calculation. Therefore, the information is not held.
Nonetheless, information relating to overall income and expenditure is freely available. Income and expenditure for the past financial year will be made available as and when the next financial statement is published by the Licensing Committee. It is expected that will be considered at the next meeting on 3rd September 2025 and published thereafter. That is less than 12 weeks away, as such exemption Section 27 of FOISA is applicable; information intended for future publication.
2. Section 25 of FOISA – Information otherwise available, is applicable.
Fees for STLs are to be calculated and charged in accordance with Sched 1 Para 15 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. In short, such reasonable fees as the authority may determine for specific business, based on any factor(s) whatsoever, whilst seeking to ensure the total fees are sufficient to meet the total expenses in carrying out their functions under Parts I and II of the Act.
Note to emphasise, the statutory test is for the authority to seek to ensure that from time to time the fees are sufficient to meet the cost to the authority of exercising licensing functions. There is no set timescale, and the authority need only seek to ensure that provision is for the benefit of the authority. Licensing is designed to be self- funding. There is no provision beyond those basic requirements.
This does not require the separation of fees (income) or expenses for individual licence types. Information previously published and freely available on the licensing pages of the council’s website include detail of income and expenditure reviews and past fee reviews / calculations.
In the past fees have been calculated by taking information average expenditure over a 3-year sample size and dividing that amongst projected application numbers (again based on average sample sizes) for different licence types. Fee reviews have been undertaken, on average each five years, with inflationary increases in between. The last full review was in 2017, and all reports to the licensing Committee are available. A further fee review is due but has not yet started as it was delayed by the effects of the pandemic skewing all figures. For the purpose of such a fee review, licences that fall under the remit of the Licensing Committee have traditionally been divided into three categories: (1) taxis and private hires given the separate legal requirement in s.12; (2) civic government licences including all those licence types listed and processed under Parts I and II as explained; and (3) miscellaneous licences including HMOs and animal related licences. When calculating fees, no cross-over is permitted between the three categories, but there may be cross-over within the categories. STLs would fit into category 2 as part of the general civic government category.
In the meantime, the licensing Committee publishes an annual report on overall income versus expenditure www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_40047.html
Steps taken to calculate STL fees and the actual fee calculation were reported to the Council’s Licensing Committee for approval when the STL licence type was developed and implemented. Documents for the relevant meeting can be accessed through the link below:
https://moray.cmis.uk.com/moray/CouncilandGovernance/Meetings/tabid/70/ctl/ViewMeetingPublic/mid/397/Meeting/1946/Committee/7/Default.aspx
The fee was calculated based on the licensing service’s knowledge of the detailed steps required to process a licence. The fee was designed to cover the cost to the council as a whole of processing an application based on timings and respective hourly rates. A separate fee was calculated for the time and cost likely to be associated with a typical inspection.
No fee review has taken place. If and when there is a further fee-review, the information will be made publicly available as part of the committee process.
Please note that in between fee reviews annual inflationary increases are applied by the council to all fees. In order to be helpful, the full fee table is available here:
www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_111938.html
Type of Application Fee
Short-term Let Licence/renewal (new or existing operator) £515
Temporary Short-term Let Licence £515
Copy of a Short-term Let licence £23
Variation (making a change) to a Short-term Let Licence £29
Inspection of Short-term Let premises £210
Transfer of Short-term Let Licence £295
Provisional Short-term Let Licence £210
Confirmation of a Provisional Short-term Let Licence £305
3. There is no income other than application fees.
4. The fee levels and reasons for the same are set out above and through the links.