Humanitarian Emergency Fund: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/01672
Date received: 15 June 2018
Date responded: 12 July 2018

Information requested

The amount committed by the Scottish Government to the Humanitarian Emergency Fund; for the amount of money paid out through the Fund to date; a list of payees that have received funding from the Fund and for the business case for the Fund.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested. 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, specifically a business case for the Fund. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.

Most of the information you have requested is available from the Humanitarian Emergency Fund annual report 2017-18 on the Scottish Government website (/publications/humanitarian-emergency-fund-annual-report-2017-2018/).

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

Information requested

As noted above most of the information you have requested is reasonably accessible to you. However this does not include funds from the Humanitarian Emergency Fund committed in 2018-19. In 2018-19, £20,000 has been paid out from the Fund to the Disasters Emergency Committee for the HEF Secretariat.

Reasons for not providing information

The Scottish Government does not have the information.

The Scottish Government does not have a business case for the Humanitarian Emergency Fund because it came from an SNP Manifesto commitment in 2016 for the Scottish Parliament elections. In September 2016, the SG's Programme for Government set the timescales, committing that a new £1 million per annum Humanitarian Aid Fund would be established from spring 2017. In consultation with international Non-Governmental Organisations (iNGOs) based in Scotland, the structure and methodology for disbursement of the emergency funds was shaped through a co-production process. Through this process it was agreed that emergency funds should be disbursed through a transparent and predictable sole funding mechanism, leading to the establishment of the Humanitarian Emergency Fund and an expert Humanitarian Emergency Fund Panel (HEF Panel) comprising eight representatives from leading humanitarian aid organisations in Scotland. Launched in April 2017, the Fund is run based on recommendations from the newly created HEF Panel and administered by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), who support the HEF Panel through the HEF Secretariat.

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

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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