Statistics of bicycles, laptops and tablets provided by Scottish Government: FOI release

Information requested

How many bicycles have the Scottish administration given out to the public, and what cost so far?

How many laptops have the Scottish administration given out to the public, and what cost so far?

How many tablets have the Scottish administration given out to the public, and what cost so far?

Response

Whilst our aim is to provide information wherever possible, the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

The Scottish Government does not hold some of the information you have asked for because local authorities are responsible for distributing devices with the funding provided to them by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government does not have a breakdown on the data of what types of devices that local authorities distributed.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have all the information you have requested.

Where possible, I have tried to answer your questions below.

Bicycle Scheme
Recent calculations from Transport Scotland shows that 988 bikes had been provided to children through pilot schemes being run by them and a total of £935,797.56 had been spent. You may wish to contact Transport Scotland directly if you would like further information regarding these schemes.

Device Rollout
Over 72,000 pupils received device to support their learning by the end of the academic year in 2020/21, via a £25 million funding package from the Scottish Government. That funding also provided over 14,000 connections and data packages for learners across Scotland.

Local authorities will also have distributed devices on top of this figure, either as a result of additional Covid funding or their own funding streams. Many of these devices will have been distributed to learners since May 2021. We do not currently have accurate data on how many were rolled out by local authorities but we are working to gather this data in partnership with local authorities to understand the full picture.

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.