Cabinet Secretary Angus Robertson's trip to Tartan Week: FOI release

Information requested

1. Full expenses and costs of Angus Robertson trip to USA for Tartan Week.
2. How many civil servants went with him, what are their jobs titles and expenses for them?
3. Itinerary for Mr Robertson when he was in USA and minutes of the meetings he held there.
4. What hotels did Mr Robertson stay in and how did he get to and from America?'

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in Annexes attached and below.

• Annex A: Tartan Week programme
• Annex B: Meeting summaries for Tartan Week

Annex C: Tartan Week - Supporting Officials' Travel and Accommodation Cost:

Official	Transport	Accommodation costs (converted to GBP)	Total Cost (pp)	Total nights at Westin Hotel, Times Square (New York)
Deputy Director	£1,476.00 (Return flight)	£846.99	£2,322.99	3
Policy Official	£586.21 (Return flight)	£1,169.44	£1,755.65	5
Comms Official	£921.41 (Return flight)	£935.55	£1,856.96	4
Policy Official	£862.71 (Return flight)	£1,169.44	£2,032.15	5
Private Secretary	£922.21 (Return flight)	£1,169.44	£2,091.65	5
US Office - Policy Official	N/A	£701.66	£701.66	3
US Office - Policy Official	£51.67 (Parking)	£1,169.44	£1,221.11	5
US Office - Policy Official	£151.55 (Train)	£701.66	£853.21	3
US Office - Policy Official	£106.94 (Train)	£701.66	£808.60	3
US Office - Head of Scottish Government Office	£286.65 (Train)	£1,169.44	£1,456.09	5
Total cost	£5,365.35	£9,734.72	£15,100.07

In answer to Question 4: the Cabinet Secretary for External Affairs stayed in the Westin Hotel, Times Square and travelled to and from the US by flight.

The Scottish Government does not hold some have the information you have asked for because information relating to the subsistence expenses of support officials were not held on the date of your request.

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

Please be aware that the above table does not include information relating to the cost of travel for the Cabinet Secretary for External Affairs. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide this information because an exemption under section 27(1) Information intended for future publication of FOISA applies to that information.

This exemption applies as details of ministerial engagements, travel and gifts will be published within the next 12 weeks and will be available when published at the link below. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

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 because of interest in Ministerial travel. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in minimising the resource implications of the duplication of work.

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.

FOI 202300352406 - Information Released - Annex A

File type

2 page PDF

File size

76.4 kB

FOI 202300352406 - Information Released - Annex B

File type

2 page PDF

File size

90.9 kB