Child poverty and Scottish Greens: FOI release

Information requested

"1. All correspondence, including internal correspondence the Scottish Government has received from and sent to Nicola Sturgeon regarding child poverty between April 1 2023 and the date of this FOI.

2. All briefings prepared for ministers, notes written and any analysis done by or for the Scottish Government regarding Nicola Sturgeons impact on child poverty in Scotland, written between April 1 2023 and the date of this FOIA request.

3. All correspondence, including internal correspondence received from and sent to Professor Danny Dorling, plus any notes and minutes referencing him, between April 1 2023 and the date of this FOI.

4. All correspondence, including internal and meeting minutes, between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Greens, which mentions plans for announcements made at their autumn conference, from June 2023 until date of this FOI.

5. How much money will it cost the Scottish Government to set up a cruise ship tax and how advanced are plans to bring this forward in Scotland?"

Response

In respect of parts 1 of your request, i.e. "All correspondence, including internal correspondence the Scottish Government has received from and sent to Nicola Sturgeon regarding child poverty between April 1 2023 and the date of this FOI", while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The reason why we don't have the information is that no correspondence regarding child poverty was received from or sent to Nicola Sturgeon between the dates specified in your request.

With reference to part 2 of your request, i.e. "All briefings prepared for ministers, notes written and any analysis done by or for the Scottish Government regarding Nicola Sturgeons impact on child poverty in Scotland, written between April 1 2023 and the date of this FOIA request", while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The reason why we don't have the information is that no briefings, notes or analysis regarding Nicola Sturgeon's impact on child poverty were produced between the dates specified in your request.

You may find it helpful to be aware that the Scottish Government routinely publish analysis on the anticipated impact of policies on child poverty. You can access publications relating to impacts on child poverty using the following links, policy level impact assessments will be available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/:

• Tackling child poverty delivery plan 2022-2026 - annex 4: cumulative impact assessment -gov.scot (www.gov.scot) – March 2022
• Tackling child poverty delivery plan 2022-2026 - annex 5: impact of policies on child poverty -gov.scot (www.gov.scot) – March 2022
• Tackling child poverty delivery plan - annual progress report: annex b - cumulative impact assessment update - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) - June 2023

Regarding part 3 of your request, i.e. "All correspondence, including internal correspondence received from and sent to Professor Danny Dorling, plus any notes and minutes referencing him, between April 1 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. The reason for this is that to locate and retrieve that information we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government. It may help if I explain that we file our information according to the subject matter, not by reference to the names of individuals with whom we have corresponded. 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 specify the subject matter(s) of the correspondence you are interested in or restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government, as this would allow us to limit the searches 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.

In respect of part 4 of your request, i.e. "All correspondence, including internal and meeting minutes, between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Greens, which mentions plans for announcements made at their autumn conference, from June 2023 until date of this FOI", while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The reason why we don't have the information is that no correspondence, including internal and meeting minutes, between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Greens, mentioning 'plans for announcements' made at their autumn conference was produced between the dates specified in your request. However, you may wish to reconsider the focus of your request, e.g. so that it focuses on specific, named policies.

With reference to part 5 of your request, i.e. "How much money will it cost the Scottish Government to set up a cruise ship tax and how advanced are plans to bring this forward in Scotland?", the answer to your question is that the Scottish Government does not hold estimates of how much it would cost to set up a cruise ship tax, and work on considering a cruise ship tax is at an early stage.

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) have requested for the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill to include the power for a local authority to introduce a discretionary local tax relating to cruise ships. The Scottish Government therefore convened a working group with COSLA and local government to scope out the work needed on a cruise ship levy. This group will report their findings to Ministers and Council Leaders, for them to consider further.

Once proposals have reached a suitable stage in development, we have committed to a public consultation on a cruise ship levy to hear the views of all relevant stakeholders. Depending on the outcome and timing of that work and consultation, the Scottish Government remains open to putting forward amendments on a cruise ship levy at stage 2 of the Bill.

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.