Operation of the Bellwin Scheme: EIR release

Information requested

Q1. How many times has the Scottish Government activated the Bellwin Scheme since 2007-08?

Q2. How much central funding has the Scottish Government provided using the Bellwin Scheme to assist local authorities in meeting significant unanticipated expenditure in each year since 2007/08?

Q3. When did the Scottish Government last conduct a review of the administration or effectiveness of the Bellwin Scheme? Please provide a copy of any review documents.

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

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, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

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

The answer to your questions are as follows.

Q1 – In 2020/21 the Scottish Government introduced a tracker to monitor the number of times the Bellwin Scheme is activated. The data is as follows:

• 2020/21 – 5
• 2021/22 – 6
• 2022/23 – 3
• 2023/24 – 3 (as of 6 December 2023)

Robust and comprehensive information on the administration of the scheme prior to 2020/21 is not routinely held.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 14(1)(i) of the EIRs applies to that information. The reasons why that exception applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Q2 - Since 2007/08 the Scottish Government has provided the following funding to local authorities using the Bellwin Scheme:

• 2009-10 - £732,725
• 2012-13 - £917,332
• 2015-16 - £6,976,786
• 2020-21 - £625,445

Q3 - The last full review of the administration or effectiveness of the Bellwin Scheme was conducted in 2005/06. Since the review in 2005/06, individual aspects of the Scheme have been and will continue to be subject to further consideration.

Please find attached the letter to Convention of Scotland’s Local authorities (COSLA) confirming the outcome of the review.

ANNEX

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

An exception applies

An exception under regulation 14(1)(i) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested.

This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception.

Non-financial information on the administration of the Bellwin scheme prior to 2020-21 is not routinely held and would impose a significant burden on the Scottish Government to comply with the process needed to locate the information. And having done so we could not be confident that the answer was comprehensive and accurate.

As outlined in the response, a new tracker of Bellwin claims and activations was introduced on 5 November 2021, therefore going forward we now have a routine tracking exercise to ensure non-financial information relating to the Bellwin Scheme is accurately stored.

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.

EIR 202300384049 - Information released - Annex

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8 page PDF

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477.4 kB