Tartan Week 2023 delegation and costs breakdown: FOI release

Information requested

"A list of names who made up the Scottish Government’s delegation to Tartan Week 2023, including a breakdown of all costs reimbursed and expenses incurred, broken down by each member of the delegation."

Response

I include a copy of most of the information you requested.

Annex A: Official support travel and accommodation costs

Official	Transport	Accommodation costs (converted to GBP)	Total Cost (pp)
Deputy Director	£1,476.00 (return flight)	£846.99	£2,322.99
Policy Official	£586.21 (return flight)	£1,169.44	£1,755.65
Comms Official	£921.41 (return flight)	£935.55	£1,856.96
Policy Official	£862.71 (return flight)	£1,169.44	£2,032.15
Private Secretary	£922.21 (return flight)	£1,169.44	£2,091.65
US Office - Policy Official	N/A	£701.66	£701.66
US Office - Policy Official	£51.67 (parking)	£1,169.44	£1,221.11
US Office - Policy Official	£151.55 (train)	£701.66	£853.21
US Office - Policy Official	£106.94 (train)	£701.66	£808.60
US Office - Head of Scottish Government Office	£286.65 (train)	£1,169.44	£1,456.09
Total cost	£5,365.35	£9,734.72	£15,100.07

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.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. This is because some of the information you have requested (names of Scottish Government officials) are the personal data of a third party.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested regarding the travel of the Cabinet Secretary for External Affairs 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.

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