The Ukraine Scottish Refugee Council (SRC): FOI release

Information requested

1. All correspondence between Scottish Refugee Council (SRC) and Scottish Government (SG) regarding the crisis in Ukraine, including any approach made to SRC or offer made by SRC to SG.

2. Details of monies awarded to SRC to respond to the Ukraine crisis, including a breakdown of deliverables and what SRC is expected to report on.

3. All correspondence between officials and ministers relating to SG response to Ukraine, not limited to the contracts with SRC, including which minister approved contracts and when decisions were made.

4. Details of any meetings or telephone calls between SG officials or ministers and SRC.

Response

Question 1, 3 and 4
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The Scottish Refugee Council is a key Scottish Government stakeholder, consistent and continuous engagement has taken place with them regarding the on-going crisis in Ukraine.

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. This may include specifying the subject matter in more detail and narrowing the timeframe of the correspondence you are interested in, 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.

Question 2
The answer to question 2, under the Warm Scottish Welcome Scheme, the Scottish Ministers have offered to give to Scottish Refugee Council a grant of up to £1,300,000 between the period of 1 March 2022 to 31 March 2023.

The expected outcome of this grant is to:

• To expand the Refugee Integration Service for both the Ukraine Family Scheme and the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (Homes for Ukraine), including where the Scottish Government acts as ‘super sponsor’.
• To expand community capacity to support Ukrainian displaced persons arriving in Scotland.

The targets/milestones against which progress in achieving objectives/expected outcomes shall be monitored are:

• Recruitment of 15 additional advisors to the Grantee’s core Refugee Integration Service, including Ukrainian & Russian speakers.
• Each advisor to work with around 60 clients per year and be supported by 2 to 3 volunteers.
• Expand regional integration hubs to support Ukrainian displaced persons.

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.