Scottish Government activities in North America - correspondence and spending: FOI release

Information requested

1. All internal Scottish Government correspondence or documentation (including emails, attachments, typed or handwritten notes, letters, notes/records of phone calls, texts or instant messages, minutes of meetings, briefings or otherwise) including the phrase "Government of Scotland in North America". Please limit to the time period 1 October 2018 to present.
2. All internal Scottish Government correspondence or documentation (including emails, attachments, typed or handwritten notes, letters, notes/records of phone calls, texts or instant messages, minutes of meetings, briefings or otherwise) on the subject of registering the Scottish Government with the US authorities as a foreign power. Please limit to the time period 1 October 2018 to present.
3. Details of any meetings between the Scottish Government and the executive branch of the United States Government in the last three years on the subject of registering the Scottish Government with the US authorities as a foreign power.
4. All spending by the Scottish Government on public relations agencies in the United States of America during the current financial year, and the two financial years previously.
5. All correspondence between the Scottish Government and the United States Department of Justice in the last year (including emails, attachments, typed or handwritten notes, letters, notes/records of phone calls, texts or instant messages, minutes of meetings, briefings or otherwise).

Response

• Requests 1-3 and 5

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. We do not have the information because there is no correspondence or documentation including the phrase "Government of Scotland in North America"; or correspondence or documentation on the subject of registering the Scottish Government with the US authorities as a foreign power; or details of any meetings between the Scottish Government and the executive branch of the United States Government in the last three years on the subject of registering the Scottish Government with the US authorities as a foreign power; or any correspondence between the Scottish Government and the United States Department of Justice in the last year. We therefore hold no records of correspondence or documents within the scope of requests 1-3 and 5. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

• Request 4

The Scottish Government made payments totaling £79,470 to a US public relations agency in the 2016/17 financial year. This was to enable the agency to deliver campaigns in Canada and the US relating to three key projects which specifically required local media contact and liaison. The agency was procured through the normal tender process in 2015 in partnership with VisitScotland.
The projects are as follows:
KiltSkate (Scottish Government sponsorship of this series of events taking place across Canada in January 2017, capitalising on the run up to Canada 150)
Scotland Week (securing media awareness of key Scotland events and activities in March and early April 2017)
ScotStory (a digital campaign designed to raise awareness of modern day connections between Scotland and the US, involving visits to Scotland by 3 digital influencers, a series of films, press releases and media pitches and new content sections on scotland.org)

No Scottish Government spending on public relations agencies in the US was recorded in the 2017/18 or 2018/19 finanical year.

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