Disclosure Scotland - Information on emission targets, Corporate Policies and plans: FOI release

Information requested

Firstly, we are interested in Public Bodies’ targets for business travel:

1. Do you have a target to cut emissions from air and/or business travel? If so, please share information about any target(s) you have (e.g. description of the target, when the target was adopted, timeline to meeting the target).

Secondly, we are interested in Public Bodies’ corporate travel policies and plans:

2. Please provide copies of any corporate policy your organisation has on the reduction of emissions from business travel.

3. Please provide copies of any corporate policy your organisation has on the reduction of the use of air travel for business travel purposes. Finally, we are specifically interested in Public Bodies’ use of rail and air for domestic travel:

4. Please provide details of the number of flights your staff have taken from Edinburgh & Glasgow Airports to London Airports for business purposes in the past 12 months (or your most recent 12 month reporting period) for travel to destinations within south-east England.

5. Please provide details of the number of rail journeys your staff have taken from Edinburgh & Glasgow railway stations to London railway stations for business purposes in the past 12 months (or your most recent 12 month reporting period) for travel to destinations within south-east England.

Response

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

The answer to your question is:

1. Do you have a target to cut emissions from air and/or business travel? If so, please share information about any target(s) you have (e.g. description of the target, when the target was adopted, timeline to meeting the target).

Disclosure Scotland is an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government and are aligned with Scottish Government policies and strategies for staff. Disclosure Scotland is committed to improving our environmental and sustainability performance in line with the Scottish Government’s objectives. This includes reducing our overall emissions by 42% by 2045. At present we do not have a target specifically for air/or business travel within Disclosure Scotland, but we adopt the sustainable travel strategy and principles from Scottish Government. This sets out the following targets up until 2020.

• reduce emissions from work travel by 40 per cent (against 2013/14 levels)
• reduce the number of flights to London by 20 per cent by 2017 and 50 per cent by 2020 (against 2013/14 levels)
• increase the number of meetings using video or audio technologies by 20 per cent by 2017 and 50 per cent by 2020 (against 2013/14 levels)

2. Please provide copies of any corporate policy your organisation has on the reduction of emissions from business travel.

At present Disclosure Scotland does not have a separate corporate policy for business travel. We follow the guiding principles of the sustainable travel strategy from the Scottish Government and promote the sustainable travel hierarchy for business travel to ensure efficient and eco-friendly travel. This promotes alternative ‘green’ ways to travel for business travel to travel by car, such as, no travel, walking, public transport and sharing transport. This will be further promoted during our Climate Week promotion in September 2023.

We have adopted a hybrid working model and promote using technology such as MS Teams and video conferencing to facilitate online meetings to also help reduce business travel.

3. Please provide copies of any corporate policy your organisation has on the reduction of the use of air travel for business travel purposes.

At present Disclosure Scotland does not have a separate corporate policy for air travel for business travel purposes. We follow the guiding principles of the sustainable travel strategy from the Scottish Government and promote the sustainable travel hierarchy for business travel to ensure efficient and eco-friendly travel. Other options must be considered before air travel and air travel will only be approved in exceptional circumstances.

4. Please provide details of the number of flights your staff have taken from Edinburgh & Glasgow Airports to London Airports for business purposes in the past 12 months (or your most recent 12 month reporting period) for travel to destinations within south-east England.

Nil

5. Please provide details of the number of rail journeys your staff have taken from Edinburgh & Glasgow railway stations to London railway stations for business purposes in the past 12 months (or your most recent 12 month reporting period) for travel to destinations within south-east England.

Nil

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.