Funding from Five European Structural and Investment Funds: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/01506
Date received: 20 June 2017
Date responded: 14 July 2017

Information requested

1. The names of the final recipients of EU funding through programmes financed by the "Five European Structural and Investment Funds" in Scotland between 01/01/2000 and 31/12/2013, or during the Third and Fourth EU Multiannual Financial Frameworks.

2. The pounds and pence total of EU funding the final recipients were allocated through programmes financed by the "Five European Structural and Investment Funds" between 01/01/2000 and 31/12/2013, or during the Third and Fourth EU Multiannual Financial Frameworks?

The "Five European Structural and Investment Funds" noted are:

• European Regional Development Fund (ERDF);
• European Social Fund (ESF);
• Cohesion Fund (CF);
• European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD);
• European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).

You asked for: the name of the recipient; the location (LA area); date received; the ESIF fund; Programme Name; and level of funding.

Your request of 29th June: You requested historical SRDP payment information for Fife.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

I've taken each scheme in turn and provided links to the grants paid where possible. Where this has not been possible I have explained why in Annex A.

• European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund.

All grants paid for the 2000-2006 and 2007-2013 have now been published on our website at the attached link. This gives you a list of the beneficiaries and the total grant paid.

/publications/esif-grant-amounts-lists-2000-2013/

• Cohesion Fund (CF)

This fund is not available to Scotland. The Cohesion Fund is aimed at member states with less than 90% average EU GDP per capita and it is heavily focused on the 13 countries which have joined since 2004.

• European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)

Information on awards made is not readily available for 2000-2006 and 2007-2013. I have provided some information below which I hope will be helpful.

The Ex-Post Evaluation of the 2007-2013 Programme is available at http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/01/6318/0

This summarises activity during this period, but does not give the level of detail on individual grants that you are requesting.

A summary of the 2007-2013 SRDP can be found at Annex B.

LEADER: LAGs are required to publish details of their respective awards and are the owners of the information. I have provided a list of the LEADER 2007-2013 programme LAGs at Annex B and links to their sites. The 2000-2006 awards are listed as part of the ERDF grants list (link above).

• Historical SRDP Payment Information for Fife This has not been provided due to the scale of the request. Please see Annex A for more detail.

• European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF)

All awards have been published at the following link: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/grants-subsidies/awards

Some of the information you have requested is available from the listed websites. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Annex A

Reasons for not providing information

Your request will exceed the upper cost limit.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600.

This is in relation to:

1. The detail you have requested with regards to all grants and loans paid to final beneficiaries (so beneath the level of our grant payment to the sponsor) under the 2007-2013 ERDF Programme.

2. The detail of EAFRD.

For the 2007-2013 ERDF Programme the information regarding payments made to final beneficiaries has been provided over a number of claims and in varying formats. Due to the scale of this both in terms of volume of projects and volume of grant recipients this cannot be easily obtained. It is also possible that we do not hold complete records in all cases. You also have asked for the dates grants were paid. Grants are paid over a number of installments and over a number of years. Again this would require significant effort to collate and so has not been provided.

For EAFRD there are tens of thousands of recipients and this information is not readily available and would require significant time and effort to collate. It is complicated by the fact that for many EAFRD Schemes, the final recipient is a small-scale producer, many of them individuals who are entitled to protection of privacy under DPA.

Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. If you can review the information we have provided and refine the request to specific cases. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on her website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx

The Scottish Government does not have the information.

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for with regards to the 2000-2006 Programmes as the information has been routinely destroyed, in accordance with our standard records management practice, before the date of your request, and in line with EC regulations.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses

FOI 17 01506 - Annex B.pdf

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