Scottish Budget 2024/25 correspondence: FOI release

Information requested

1. All correspondence sent and received by the Scottish Government from JP Marks regarding the 2024/25 budget, including internal correspondence, and briefings between October 1 2023 and the date of this FOI.

2. All correspondence sent and received by the Scottish Government about the £30m cut to the mental health budget in the 2024/25 budget, including internal correspondence, and briefings between December 1 2023 and the date of this FOI.

3. All correspondence sent and received by the Scottish Government about the failure to offer businesses rates relief in the 2024/25 budget, including internal correspondence, and briefings between December 1 2023 and the date of this FOI.

4. Could you supply the analysis the Scottish Government undertook to decide how much each council receives for council tax freeze funding?

Response

Question 1

Some of the information you have requested is attached to this correspondence. Relevant items were identified and the following FOISA exemptions are judged to apply to some of this material:

• Section 38(1)(b) personal information.

This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’.

• Section 29(1)(a) formulation or development of SG policy
• Section 30(b)(i) free and frank provision of advice
• Section 30(b)(ii) free and frank exchange of views

These exemptions are subject to the ‘public interest test’. 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 to support free and frank provision of advice from senior officials to Ministers.

Question 2

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because there has not been a £30m cut to the published 2024/25 Mental Health budget. The published 2024/25 Mental Health budget is £290.2m, however this is still subject to approval by the Scottish Parliament. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

Question 3

We have interpreted this question to relate to non-domestic rates relief for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, rather than all non-domestic rates relief.

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 as the type of information you have requested is broad and there may be a large volume of information within scope. 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, potentially by narrowing the timeframe of your request, or narrowing the type of information requested (e.g. only external correspondence, or only briefings). 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.

Question 4

The First Minister announced a Council Tax Freeze in 2024-25 at the SNP Party Conference on 17 October 2023. In the Scottish Budget on 19 December 2023, the Deputy First Minister confirmed that £144 million had been set aside in the budget to fund a Council Tax freeze. This quantum is based on a national 5 % increase in net revenue.

The information you have requested is contained in a recent, published, letter to COSLA and Council Leaders which discusses the Scottish Budget, fiscal framework and council tax freeze. Find the published letter at; Council tax freeze: letter to COSLA and Council Leaders - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

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 202400393899 - Information released - Attachment

File type

PDF

File size

147.1 kB