The Lines Between social research agency payments: FOI release

Information requested

1. All records, notes, invoices which show how much from public money was paid to agency The Lines Between in 2022 and 2023;

2. If a proportion of that payment was given by The Lines Between to the firm Taylor McKenzie to pay for recruitment and payment of people recruited from Facebook as a “patient panel" and;

3. The overall sums paid to Taylor McKenzie via The Lines Between as this was all part of public money for a patient panel recruitment and report commissioned by the Scottish Government’s Clinical Priorities Unit.

Response

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

Some of the information you have requested is available from The Scottish Parliament website at Written question and answer: S6W-17658 | Scottish Parliament Website. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

All records, notes, invoices which show how much from public money was paid to agency The Lines Between in 2022 and 2023.

FOI provides a right to receive information rather than a right to receive copies of documents. Please find below a record of all transactions to The Lines Between. The transactions below are inclusive of VAT.

	Reference	Balance	Creation Date
Lines Between Limited, The	SGCPLEP1	£ 1,600.00	02-AUG-2022
Lines Between Limited, The	SGCPLEP1	£ 8,001.00	02-AUG-2022
Lines Between Limited, The	SGCPLEP1	-£1.00	02-AUG-2022
Lines Between Limited, The	1122	£ 1,600.00	23-NOV-2022
Lines Between Limited, The	1122	£ 8,000.00	23-NOV-2022
Lines Between Limited, The	1149	£ 1,600.00	13-FEB-2023
Lines Between Limited, The	1149	£ 8,000.00	13-FEB-2023
Lines Between Limited, The	1152	£ 2,400.00	01-MAR-2023
Lines Between Limited, The	1152	£12,000.00	01-MAR-2023
Lines Between Limited, The	1156	£ 800.00	10-MAR-2023
Lines Between Limited, The	1156	£ 4,000.00	10-MAR-2023

If a proportion of that payment was given by The Lines Between to the firm Taylor McKenzie to pay for recruitment and payment of people recruited from Facebook as a “patient panel".

Whilst a post was placed on Facebook to seek to extend reach for this project, on this occasion no participants were recruited from the Facebook post.

For this project, participants were sourced from the recruitment agency database and via a regional recruiter. Checks were subsequently made on participant eligibility via a detailed recruitment screener, including question on impact of pain and treatment pathways.

The overall sums paid to Taylor McKenzie via The Lines Between as this was all part of public money for a patient panel recruitment and report commissioned by the Scottish Government’s Clinical Priorities Unit.

I refer you to the written question and answer on The Scottish Parliament website. Written question and answer: S6W-17658 | Scottish Parliament Website.

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.