Grants awarded to Agencies, Charitable organisations and Community companies or societies: FOI release

Information requested

“For the below questions please use the most up to date available figures at the time of your reply and note which date range has been included in your figures.

1. For each of the financial years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, please can you detail the total number and value of grants using public money awarded to any organisation by Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise or Scottish Investment Bank?

2. For each of the financial years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, please can you detail the total number and value of loans/investments/guarantees using public money awarded to any organisation by Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise or Scottish Investment Bank?

3. For each of the financial years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, please can you detail the total number and value of grants using public money awarded to Community Interest Companies, Community Benefit Societies, Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations and Registered Charities by Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise or Scottish Investment Bank?

4. For each of the financial years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, please can you detail the total number and value of loans/investments/guarantees using public money awarded to Community Interest Companies, Community Benefit Societies, Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations and Registered Charities by Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise or Scottish Investment Bank?

5. The Scottish Growth Scheme is a £500m package of support for businesses (https://www.mygov.scot/scottish-growth-scheme/), to date what proportion of the awarded support has been awarded to Community Interest Companies, Community Benefit Societies, Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations and Registered Charities?”

Response

I can confirm that the information requested in points 1-4 above is not held by the Scottish Government. This would be considered an operational matter for each individual agency. You may wish to forward these specific queries to Scottish Enterprise (SE), for SE and the Scottish Investment Bank, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) directly and I have provided the relevant e-mail address for both agencies below:

• Scottish Enterprise – pressoffice@scotent.co.uk 
• Highland and islands Enterprise – customer.service@hient.co.uk

In reference to your query outlined in point five I can confirm that to date (submission date of request – 12 June 2020) the Scottish Growth Scheme (SGS) has supported four Community Interest Companies and one Community Benefit Society, as a proportion of SGS awarded, this represents 1% of businesses supported. This is not surprising given that the main focus of SGS support is mainly towards businesses with growth and export ambitions and the equity investment is aimed at new, early stage, and technology intensive companies.

Organisations in the identified areas would be more likely to approach specialist funding providers in the market i.e. Social Investment Scotland or First Port when seeking their funding.

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