Tartan Week 2023 costs breakdown: FOI release

Information requested

"A breakdown of all costs incurred by the Scottish Government which were associated with Tartan Week 2023."

Response

I include a copy of some of the information you requested. Please see the below Annexes which provide the information to your question.

Annex A: Official support travel and accommodation costs

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

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.

Annex B: Other costs associated with Tartan Week

	(converted to GBP)
Higher Education event held at HM Trade Commissioner Residences	£4,077.07
Diaspora Breakfast/ Launch of Scottish Connections Framework	£4,831.99
Car hire	£2,403.91
Taxi travel	£83.26
Total	£11,396.23

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.