Contributors to the Redress Scotland scheme: FOI release

Information requested

1) The number of groups (i.e. charities, local authorities and care providers) to contribute to the Redress Scotland scheme for survivors of abuse.

2) The number of groups who refused to pay into the scheme.

3) Correspondence between Redress Scotland and/or the Scottish Government in relation to requests for contributions. This should include initial approaches, responses from the non-governmental groups and any negotiations that took place around the size of the contribution. For the purposes of this request, correspondence should include email accounts.

4) Dates of any meetings between officials from the Scottish Government and/or Redress Scotland and prospective contributors along with any minutes recorded during such meetings.

Response

I enclose a response to some of the information you requested.

The answers to your questions 1 and 2 are:

1) As at today's date there are 11 contributors to the Redress Scotland scheme for survivors of abuse. Please find attached the link to the Contributor list.

2) No groups have refused to pay into the scheme as it is entirely voluntary.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested for questions 3 and 4 would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. We have conducted over 160 meetings with current and potential contributors and estimate that in order to answer these questions would take over 40 hours at the flat rate of £15.00 per hour, so exceeding the £600 limit.

Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, you could specify the subject matter(s) of the correspondence you are interested in or restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

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.