Media officers employed by the Scottish Government: FOI release

Information requested

Please provide the number of media officers employed by the Scottish government in the financial year 2021-2022. Please also provide the budget for the Scottish government's media relations department in this year.

Response

1. The number of FTE Media officers is set out in the table below.

Year	FTE
2021-2022	53.6

* FTE figure is from March 31 2022

Numbers of FTE Media officers vary throughout the financial year and the figures represent staff numbers on just one day of each year, March 31st. This means that these figures are a 'snapshot': they do not represent either a total number or average number of staff employed in the year.

2. In response to your question on providing budget for Scottish Government’s media relations department this year, an exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to this information requested because we intend to publish that information by 4th October 2022 which is within 12 weeks of the date of your request. This information is routinely published on an annual basis, however, due to the response to the pandemic, the proactive publication has been delayed. 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 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.

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.