
A Freedom of Information request that was submitted to the Scottish Government regarding business rate payers across Scotland makes interesting and extensive reading.
The comprehensive request asked for a time-series breakdown, (2015–2024), number of properties and Rateable Value by the same property core categories. The requestee also asked for the data to include both the numbers for all properties, and the numbers for properties which aren’t zero-rated. The request with explanations has now been published on the Scottish Government website, but it does not say who made the request.
The Excel file includes 1969 different categories of businesses, listed in alphabetical order. All the data can be downloaded here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202400440985/