Funding received regarding building safety: EIR release

Information requested

1. How much money has the Scottish Government received via Barnett consequentials as a result of UK Government funding for cladding remediation and other building safety work following the Grenfell Tower?

2. How much of this money has the Scottish government spent on building safety work? Please can you provide a breakdown of what that money has been spent on.

Response

The information you request is provided by the first question listed at the following Ministerial Working Group on Mortgage Lending and Cladding: questions answered - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). For ease it is replicated here:

How much funding has the Scottish Government received from the UK Government (Barnett consequentials) for cladding remediation?

The Scottish Government received £97.1m in Barnett consequentials following the UK Government’s announcement in March 2020 (to remediate non-ACM cladding systems on residential buildings 18 metres and over where leaseholders would incur the costs or where the costs are a threat to the financial stability of the social housing provider). The UK Government made a further announcement in February 2021 about funds being made available for remediation and this would include the devolved nations. The Scottish Government has yet to receive clarity on how much this will be or when it will be received and continues to press for this.

In respect of your second question, An exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information requested because we intend to publish that information within 12 weeks of the date of your request. We consider that it is reasonable to withhold the information until that date, rather than release some of this information before the planned publication date.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because our planned publication was within this 12 week period. In the meantime, there is a greater public interest in taking the time necessary to ensure the information has been properly collated and checked before it is published as planned. Also, we see no public interest in disrupting our programme of work to release the information ahead of the intended publication date.

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.