Scottish Government overseas office statistics: FOI release

Information requested

Information on "Scottish Government Oversea office" and in particular:

Can you advise on what dates each of the above open by year format , and what has been the level of financial investment in Scotland by each of the offices activities again by year format?

And by location what if any , have there been any visits to these overseas offices by MSP's by year format, please list by year?

And too date what has been the total cost of having these offices to the Scottish taxpayer?

Response

Please see below the response with most of the information you requested in the format you asked for.

1. 

International Office	Opened
Brussels (Scotland House)	1999
Washington	2001
Beijing	2005
London (Scotland House)	2017
Berlin	2018
Ottawa	2018
Paris	2018
Copenhagen	2022

Level of financial investment in Scotland is not measured by each individual Scottish Government office. Colleagues both in Scotland and in our international offices across Scottish Government, and Scottish Development International all contribute together towards trade and investment measures. Our offices work across geographies and on a sectoral basis together with teams in Scotland and wider partners across industry, academia and beyond to engage in the wide range of activities which contribute to trade and investment successes. The offices engage with businesses and stakeholders through a range of activities however a direct impact is not always measurable or directly attributable to a specific office or a groups of offices as it is commonly the case in this type of engagement.

2. Scotland House London had 2 MSPs visit in 2019 and our International Office in Berlin had 9 MSPs visit in 2022.

3. Budget per annum including staff salaries

	2016-17 £000	2017-18 £000	2018-19 £000	2019-20 £000	2020-21 £000	2021-22 £000	2022-23 £000
Beijing, China	395	395	395	553	554	550	567
Washington DC, United States	700	700	700	807	811	805	794
Ottawa, Canada			500	575	575	570	634
Paris, France			500	545	558	556	659
Dublin, Ireland			350	541	572	596	593
Berlin, Germany			300	549	549	555	572
Brussels, Belgium		1,139	1,639	2,079	2,088	2,310	2,467
London, England			1,650	1,995	2,041	2,197	2,180
Copenhagen, Denmark							598

NOTE

• 2016-17 was the first year in which the United States and China Offices had separate budget lines. Prior to this they were funded from within budgets that contained other elements and were not accounted for separately.
• 2017-18 was the first year in which the Brussels Office had a separate budget line, it was previously funded from within a larger budget and was not accounted for separately.
• Prior to 2018-19 the budgets for London, Dublin and Berlin (while these offices were being established) were not identified separately. They were funded from within a larger budget line and were not accounted for separately.

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