Funding to charities and third sector organisations: FOI release

Information requested

“Please provide the following information for 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21:

The value of grants made to each of the organisations listed below. Please provide the information for each of the three financial years separately, and list all grants separately.

The value of loans made to each of the organisations listed below. Please provide the information for each of the three financial years separately, and list all loans separately.

The payments made to charities and third sector organisations relate to the following only:

• Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH)
• Independent Sage
• NHS Confederation
• Keep our NHS public
• SOS NHS
• Care and Support Workers Organise
• UNITED VOICES OF THE WORLD
• Health Campaigns Together
• Doctors for the NHS
• We Own It
• The People's Assembly
• Zero Covid Coalition
• Health Campaign Together
• Docs Not Cops
• British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin
• Association of Pakistani Physicians of Northern Europe
• Royal College of General Practitioners
• Royal College of Ophthalmology
• Royal College of Psychiatrists
• Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists”

Response

Scottish Government publishes details of payments over £25,000 on a monthly basis, including any such payments made to the organisations set out in your request. This information is publicly available on the Scottish Government’s website: Government spend over £25,000: monthly reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Information relating to March 2021 will be published in March 2022.

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

An exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information requested because we intend to publish that information on 04 March 2022 which is 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 this routinely published 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 to provide transparency on the use of public funds, and this will be met by our planned publication. 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

Grant payments made for amounts below £25,000 are as follows:

• Royal College of Psychiatrists - £12,650.00 on 04 September 2018 - Chose psychiatry in Scotland.
• Royal College of General Practitioners – £1,945.00 on 09 December 2019 - Drug us training for General Practitioners.

There were no loan payments made to any of the organisations listed in your request.

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.