Number of European Structural Funds claims: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/00756
Date received: 9 March 2018
Date responded: 27 March 2018

Information requested

Please advise how many claims SFC made to the Scottish Government per each Programme Year?

Please advise if there is shortfall from the funding awarded and the claim back to SFC for each programme year?

If for instance there is a shortfall of £X for any programme year, who funds the shortfall? Scottish Government or SFC?

Please advise if there has been any shortfall for the period(s) in question?

If so, where did/will any shortfall be covered from/by?'

Response

The answers to your questions are detailed below.

1. Please advise how many claims SFC made to the Scottish Government per each Programme Year?

Please see table below for information on European Social Fund awards to SFC and claims made by SFC to the Scottish Government Managing Authority.

ESF Operation	Funding Period	ESF Grant Approved
Youth Employment Initiative (YEI)	2015-18	£27.95m

ESF Claim & Version Submitted	Claim Period	ESF Claim Amount	Decision
YEI version 1	Academic Year 2015/16	£8.73m	Rejected
YEI version 2	Academic Year 2015/16	£8.06m	Rejected

ESF Operation	Funding Period	ESF Grant Approved
Developing Scotland's Workforce (DSW)	2015-16	£3.29m
Developing Scotland's Workforce (DSW)	2016-18	£8.64m

ESF Claim Version Submitted	Claim Period	ESF Claim Amount	Decision
DSW version 1	Academic Year 2015/16	£2.79m	Rejected
DSW version 2	Academic Year 2015/16	£2.59m	Still being processed

2. Please advise if there is shortfall from the funding awarded and the claim back to SFC for each programme year?

The table above shows that no claims made by SFC have been paid to date. This is because of a lack of sufficient audit evidence to meet EC requirements. In terms of shortfalls, YEI is funded over a three year period and this funding is not broken down per year so it is not possible to determine if there is a shortfall in funding at this stage. SFC are currently working on a third version of the YEI claim. For DSW, the first operation application covered one year and was for £3.29m ESF grant. The latest version of the DSW claim submitted is for £2.59m ESF grant resulting in potential shortfall of £0.7m grant for 2015-16. As a decision on this claim has not yet been reached by the SG Managing Authority it is not possible to determine figures at this stage.

3. If for instance there is a shortfall of £X for any programme year, who funds the shortfall? Scottish Government or SFC?

The management of any budgetary pressure on the SFC arising from a shortfall in ESF income will be agreed between the SFC and SG.

4. Please advise if there has been any shortfall for the period(s) in question? If so, where did/will any shortfall be covered from/by?

See answers to Questions 2 and 3.

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