Covid-19: Support loans to businesses: FOI review

Information requested

1. The amount of money owed to the Scottish Government in Covid-related support loans to businesses which, since the loan was provided, have entered liquidation, administration, or dissolved.
2. The company numbers and names of the companies in question, plus the amount loaned to them, including a date of the loan being granted and the date the Scottish Government was made aware of liquidation, administration, or dissolution.

Response

I have concluded that a different decision should be substituted.

Our original response released all of the information requested exceptthe names of the companies involved. On review, I have concluded that this information should be disclosed and the company names of the 3 businesses which are relevant to your request are specified below.

Company	Loan Awarded and Date	Date of administration/liquidation	Notification Received	Outstanding Loan (incl interest)
Ladybank Homes Ltd	£550,000 August 2020	Administration 12/8/21	Around 14/9/21	£561,000
S Ewing and Sons	£450,000 December 2020	Voluntary Liquidation 30/3/22	30/3/22	£462,040
Kapital Residential Ltd	£850,000 August 2020	Voluntary Liquidation 22/6/22	Around 26/6/22	£728,686

Our aim is to provide information whenever possible, on this occasion I am not satisfied that the exemption under Section 33(1)(b) applies to the names of the companies and therefore these have been released. As this is money owed to the Scottish Government the public interest in disclosure outweigh the public interest in maintaining the exemption. Further to this, I do not believe this disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the commercial interests of any person. “Person” includes a public authority, company and partnership.

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