Publication - FOI/EIR release

Breakdown of BrewDog funding and correspondence: FOI release

Published: 7 March 2022
Directorate: Agriculture and Rural Economy Directorate
Topic: Economy, Public sector
FOI reference: FOI/202200275787
Date received: 25 January 2022
Date responded: 18 February 2022

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

Information requested

1. How much money has the Scottish Government paid to Brewdog since 2007?

2. Breakdown of each payment and the reasons for each payment and when each payment was made?

3. Any email or text correspondence between government ministers and James Watt or Brewdog representatives since 2007?

Response

Set out below is most of the information you requested.

The answer to your questions is:

Question 1: A total of £1,009,332.36 has been paid to Brewdog by Scottish Government since 2007. This figure is explained and caveated below.

Question 2: A breakdown of each payment and the reasons for each payment and when each payment was made (where that is known) is set out in the table attached:

Our aim is to provide information whenever possible but as a result of the way the grants have been paid and the information is held, we do not know the exact dates of every payment made for Covid business support. We are also not able to extract a payment record for every grant paid under the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant in summer 2020 and so the figures asterisked above may be incomplete for some business premises.

The Covid business support schemes were national schemes and open to all qualifying businesses impacted by restrictions introduced to control the spread of Covid. The information attached on Covid business support awarded to Brewdog only includes confirmed payments to Brewdog premises during the 2020-21 financial year, where specific data is held by Scottish Government. Where information is not held by the Scottish Government these payments have not been included in the table attached.

Additional payments may have been made to Brewdog during the 2021-22 financial year but this data is not held by Scottish Government. Local authorities may hold information on such payments e.g. from the local restrictions fund.

Although not strictly a payment to Brewdog, you may wish to note that local authorities publish lists of Non Domestic Rates relief recipients and these lists may include rates relief, such as Retail, Leisure, Hospitality and Aviation relief, provided to premises occupied by Brewdog. A link is attached which sets out the information that should be available on local authority websites: https://www.gov.scot/publications/local-government-finance-circular-13-2020-publication-of-relief-recipients-guidance/

Question 3: I attach three letters sent to James Watt and other Brewdog representatives by Ministers since 2007. No email or text correspondence has been traced.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

The information concerned is shown as redactions in the three letters provided in response to Question 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.