Section 27 funding for Glasgow City Council: FOI release

Information requested

1. Please can you confirm if the funding provided to Glasgow City Council by the Scottish Government to pay for the recently tendered women's residential justice service in Glasgow - formally known as 218 - was provided to Glasgow City Council in addition to their standard allocation of Section 27 funding.

2. If this grant is over and above Glasgow City Council's standard allocation of Section 27 funding, please confirm the reasons why Glasgow was given this additional money and other local authorities are not being offered this?

3. As the original grant allocation from The Scottish Government for a women's residential service in Glasgow was £1.3 million, and the recently tendered service has a budget of £650,000, and no money has been reduced from the allocation of community justice funding to Glasgow City Council, where has the remainder of this £1.3 million grant been allocated or spent by Glasgow or The Scottish Government?

Response

The answer to your questions are :

1. The funding provided to Glasgow City Council (GCC) was included as part of their Section 27 funding allocation, but to be used specifically for women's residential justice service.

2. This funding has been provided to GCC since 2017 and was previously provided to the now disestablished Glasgow Community Justice Authority. The service opened in Glasgow in response to growing concerns about the needs and treatment of women offenders in the criminal justice system. While funding is provided for that particular purpose, the oversight and management of the service is a matter for GCC, in line with the overall model for community justice.

3. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the information you have requested because an exemption(s) under section 33: the commercial and economy interests of GCC specifically under s.33 (i)(b) and s.33 (ii)(b)s) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption(s) applies is because the specific funding relates to the tender, as this is live. However, I can confirm that any funding not allocated to this specific type of service would be returned to the Scottish Government for reallocation.

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