Scottish Statutory Instrument 2026/198 sets 22 July 2026 as the date on which the remaining provisions of the Visitor Levy (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2026 will take effect. According to the instrument published on legislation.gov.uk, the Regulations were made on 3 June 2026, laid before the Scottish Parliament on 5 June 2026 and signed by Jenny Gilruth on behalf of the Scottish Ministers. The immediate purpose is procedural but important. Regulation 2 appoints 22 July 2026 as the commencement date for the parts of the 2026 Act that were not already in force, giving councils and affected businesses a fixed legal date for the next stage of the visitor levy framework.
The explanatory note states that the 2026 Act received Royal Assent on 21 May 2026. It adds that most of Part 2 came into force on 22 May 2026, the day after Royal Assent, while sections 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and the relevant parts of section 15 and the schedule are deferred until two months after Royal Assent. In practice, that means 22 July 2026 becomes the main remaining commencement point. The Regulations therefore complete the timetable for the amendment Act and remove uncertainty about when the outstanding provisions move from enacted law to operative law.
The more operational element sits in regulation 3. It creates a transitional rule for councils that have already progressed a proposed visitor levy scheme under the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 but later decide to make a significant modification by changing the charging model from a percentage to a fixed rate under section 14(4)(bb). Under the ordinary rule in section 14(3B) of the 2024 Act, inserted by the 2026 amendment Act, that kind of significant modification would usually trigger a minimum 18-month period before the revised scheme could take effect. The new Regulations temporarily disapply that default position for a narrow group of schemes already moving through the statutory process.
Where the transitional rule applies, the waiting period is reduced from 18 months to at least six months from the date of the further section 13(1)(c) report in which the local authority confirms that it intends to proceed with the modification. The Regulations also add a second safeguard: the modified scheme cannot take effect earlier than the original proposed commencement date previously publicised under section 15(1)(b)(ii) of the 2024 Act. That matters because the instrument is not offering councils a general fast-track power. It is allowing a shorter lead-in only where the authority is already well advanced and only where the revised scheme still respects the date originally put into the public domain.
The qualifying conditions are tightly drawn. First, by 22 July 2026, the local authority must already have published a section 13(1)(c) report stating that it intends to proceed with a proposed scheme. Secondly, by that same date, it must also have completed the notification and publication steps required by section 15(1) of the 2024 Act. Thirdly, the proposed scheme must not yet be in force on 22 July 2026. Fourthly, the authority must then publish a further section 13(1)(c) report no later than 22 January 2027 stating that it intends to make the significant modification covered by section 14(4)(bb). Only if all of those conditions are met does the six-month transitional rule replace the standard 18-month rule.
For local authorities, the practical effect is to preserve momentum where scheme design changes late in the process. A council that has already consulted, reported and publicised a proposed levy is not forced into a much longer reset period solely because it moves from a percentage-based model to a fixed-rate model before the scheme starts. For accommodation providers and other affected operators, the safeguard works in both directions. It permits a shorter adjustment period than the usual statutory rule, but it still guarantees at least six months from the later report and prevents implementation before the original proposed start date. That provides a clearer basis for pricing, system changes and customer communications.
The Regulations do not themselves introduce a visitor levy in any council area and they do not set levy rates. Their function is narrower: to bring the remaining provisions of the 2026 amendment Act into force on 22 July 2026 and to manage a specific transition for certain schemes already in development under the 2024 Act. For policy teams, the point to watch is implementation at local authority level after 22 July 2026. Councils that have already advanced proposed schemes now have a time-limited route to revise the basis of charge without triggering the full 18-month delay, but only within the boundaries set out in SSI 2026/198.