Costs relating to the sale of Prestwick Airport: FOI release

Information requested

For questions 1 and 2, I would like this request to cover the period since 22 April 2022 when FOI 202200280814 was issued.

1. Please provide a copy of all the business-facing or public-facing documentation that the Scottish Government has used to advertise the sale of Prestwick Airport. For example, please provide a copy of any brochures or adverts placed.
2. Please provide a copy of all the documentation that the Scottish Government has made available to companies that are subsequently considered (a) credible expressions of interest or (b) a preferred bidder for Prestwick Airport.
3. Please confirm how much the Scottish Government has spent to date advertising the sale of Prestwick Airport, broken down by the type of cost, and details of how the sale has been advertised.
4. Please confirm how much the Scottish Government has spent to date working on the sale of Prestwick Airport, broken down by cost
5. Please provide a breakdown of professional fees in relation to the sale of Prestwick Airport, including (a) the names of the companies, (b) the date of payments and (c) the reason for the payments  (a description of the work carried out).

Response

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

1,2) The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for in questions 1 and 2 as we have not run a sales process for Prestwick Airport since 22 April 2022.

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

3) The Scottish Government has not spent any money advertising the sale of Prestwick Airport. The opportunity was promoted through a press release and notices being published in 2021 on the Official Journal of the European Union and Public Contracts Scotland. This did not incur a cost.

4) It is not possible to provide a breakdown of Scottish Government internal staffing costs as there have been no members of staff solely employed or contracted to work on a sale of Prestwick Airport. It is not standard practice for civil servants to record time spent on certain activities on timesheets (or similar).

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
There was no advertisement costs (as above) and other costs are covered by the response below.

5) Professional fees in relation to the sale of Prestwick Airport to date are £2,519,779.61. This comprises legal and other professional advisers. A breakdown of professional fees incurred in relation to a potential sale of Prestwick Airport is provided in the attached annex.

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 202300364698 - Information Released - Annex

File type

Excel document

File size

14.5 kB