Scottish Government spend on photography and stationery: FOI release

Information requested

1. How much has the Scottish government spent on photography so far this year up to the date ofthis Foi? And a breakdown of what the money was spent on.

• Could you also supply the photography bill for 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 and the breakdown of what the money was spent on?

2 . How much money has the Scottish Government spent on stationery so far this year up to the dateof this foi?

• Could you supply the type of pen used by Humza Yousaf and the make and how much of these he owns/uses?
• Could you supply the stationery bill for 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 and a break down of what the money was spent on?

3.  What email accounts does the first minister and deputy first minister use to send and receiveemails about Scottish government business?

4.  How much money has been spent on paying off/giving money to special advisers for leaving their roles in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 and a breakdown of these costs, including how many special advisers left there roles?

5.  All correspondence received and sent by Humza Yousaf regarding Dr Sam Eljamel betweenJune 2023 and the date of this FOI?

Response

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

1.  How much has the Scottish government spent on photography so far this year up to the date of this Foi? And a breakdown of what the money was spent on.

1a.  Could you also supply the photography bill for 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 and the breakdown of what the money was spent on?

Information for the request has already been released - Photography budget: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Spend from August 22 to date is –

• 01/08/22 - 31/03/23 - £3,347.76
• 01/04/23- 28/08/23 - £5,676.12

2.  How much money has the Scottish Government spent on stationery so far this year up to the date of this foi?

Both the Scottish Government corporate purchasing system (CPS) and Scottish Government Electronic Purchasing Card (ePC) system have been checked.

• Spend via CPS - 01/04/23 - 31/08/23 - £24,176.53
• Spend via ePC - 01/04/23 - 31/07/23 - £12,858.35

2a.  Could you supply the type of pen used by Humza Yousaf and the make and how much of these he owns/uses?

The First Minister uses no specific pen.

2b.  Could you supply the stationery bill for 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 and a break down of what the money was spent on?

Total amount spent on stationery via CPS is in the table below.

Tax Year - 01/04/XX - 31/03/XX	Sum
19/20	£189,400.09
20/21	£ 43,413.00
21/22	£ 46,971.85
22/23	£ 64,999.97
23/24	£ 24,176.53
Grand Total	£368,961.44

The attached spreadsheet shows a full breakdown. The data has been filtered using UNSPSC (The United Nations Standard Products and Services Code) Code & Description.

Total amount spent on stationery via ePC is in the table below.

Tax Year - 01/04/xx - 31/03xx	Sum
19/20	£ 13,171.68
20/21	£ 37,642.56
21/22	£ 38,266.44
22/23	£ 32,726.58
23/24	£ 12,858.35
Grand Total	£134,665.61

The attached spreadsheet shows a full breakdown.

3.  What email accounts does the first minister and deputy first minister use to send and receive emails about Scottish government business?

First Minister email account is FirstMinister@gov.scot, Deputy First Minister is DFMCSF@gov.scot.

Section 30 (c) – substantial prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs
An exemption under section 30(c) of FOISA (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs) applies to some of the information requested. It is essential for Ministers and officials to be able to communicate and/or meet, often in confidence. 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 a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing Ministers and officials a private space within which to communicate and/or meet.

4.  How much money has been spent on paying off/giving money to special advisers for leaving their roles in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 and a breakdown of these costs, including how many special advisers left there roles?

You have used the terms ‘paying off’ and ‘giving money to’ which I have interpreted as follows:

The term giving money to is interpreted to be contractual payments made (where applicable) on termination of employment in respect of:

• Accrued but untaken holiday pay;
• Unpaid wages
• Payment received instead of working a notice period, e.g. payment in lieu of notice (PILON) [note that as a condition of payment, if a SpAd is reappointed within 6 months of receiving a severance payment, they are required to repay the relevant proportion.']

This is in line with GOV.UK guidance on the definition of termination payments. The term ‘paying off’ is interpreted to mean exit payments or any payments which could be referred to as a “golden goodbye”, i.e. where payments have been made to individuals over and above their contractual entitlements. In line with the above interpretations contractual payments were made to staff in 2021 and 2023 as follows:

• 2021 - 14 Special Advisers received termination payments as per the provisions of their contracts of employment. These payments total £459,484.32 and relate to contractual severance pay entitlements for payment in lieu of notice (£355,164.43) and/or annual leave accrued but untaken (£104,319.89)
• 2023 - 8 Special Advisers received termination payments as per the provisions of their contracts of employment. These payments total £223,897.38 and relate to contractual severance pay entitlements for payment in lieu of notice (£204,055.62) and/or annual leave accrued but untaken (£19,841.76).

These payments are automatically payable by the employer on termination. Scottish Ministers are not involved in approved Special Adviser severance payments as they are contractual entitlements, with the terms of contracts reserved to UK Government.These contractual terms for severance payments reflect that SpAds are required to cease to be employed with immediate effect and without a period of notice.

No contractual payments were made in 2019, 2020, or 2022.

No non-contractual payments were made in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, or 2023.

While the Scottish Government’s aim is to provide information wherever possible, an exemption under s.38(1)(b) applies to your request. This exemption applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party/parties and disclosing it could lead to their identification and would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

We are, therefore, unable to provide a detailed breakdown of the contractual payments made to individual Special Advisers.

5.  All correspondence received and sent by Humza Yousaf regarding Dr Sam Eljamel between June 2023 and the date of this FOI?

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. This is due to the volume of documents and data to be retrieved and personal information that would require redaction. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, you could restrict your request to a more specific date range or specify who has sent or received the correspondence to or from the First Minister as this would allow us to limit the searches and redaction that would require to be conducted.

You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

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 202300373362 - Information Released - Spend Data

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