Communication between Scottish Government and Police Scotland on the operation of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU): FOI release

Information requested

1. Information relating to any agreement between the Scottish Government and the Police Service of Scotland which relates to the operation of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU) - including funding, management, staff, governance, liabilities etc. since its inception in 2005. Latest version of any such material acceptable to reduce need to search historical records.
2. Detail on budget/finance allocated to the work of the SVRU for each financial year: 2020/2021, 2021/2022, 2022/2023, 2023/2024.
3. Copies of any return documentation detailing how any funding/grants provided to the work of the SVRU (directly or via PSOS) was spent for each financial year: 2020/2021, 2021/2022, 2022/2023, 2023/2024.
4. Copies of any agendas and/or minutes held in relation to the governance or management of the SVRU for financial years: 2020/2021, 2021/2022, 2022/2023, 2023/2024.
5. Copies of any documentation in electronic or written form (to include emails) from Officers or Members of Police Staff to Scottish Government Ministers or staff which relate to concerns, investigations or enquiries regarding the management, operation, finance or health and safety within the SVRU since its inception in 2005 but in the past 4 years as a minimum.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you have asked for. Please find below our response to each part of your request:

1. Information relating to any agreement between the Scottish Government and the Police Service of Scotland which relates to the operation of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU) - including funding, management, staff, governance, liabilities etc. since its inception in 2005. Latest version of any such material acceptable to reduce need to search historical records.

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. Due to the blanket nature of your request we have had to perform very wide searches to try to find the information you have requested. The searches have provided a vast number of results which require more time to deal with than we are able to reasonably allocate to this request. 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. This could be done by narrowing down the information you would like to receive from us to more specific agreements around a smaller number of topics. 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.

2. Detail on budget/finance allocated to the work of the SVRU for each financial year: 2020/2021, 2021/2022, 2022/2023, 2023/2024.

The information you requested for financial year 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 is published and available online from the Scottish Policy Authority website at the following links; spa-annual-report- 2020-21.pdf spa-annual-report-21-22_final.pdf and spa-annualreport-22-23-upload.pdf . 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.

For financial year, 2023/24. An offer of grant up to the amount of £1,170,500 was allocated for work of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit. At this time, the final grant amount paid for the full year is not available.

3. Copies of any return documentation detailing how any funding/grants provided to the work of the SVRU (directly or via PSOS) was spent for each financial year: 2020/2021, 2021/2022, 2022/2023, 2023/2024.

Please find enclosed the quarterly and end year returns covering the time period you requested. In line with Scottish Government policy and official exemptions for personal information under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA, we have redacted a number of pieces of personal information as well as any information out of scope of the request.

4. Copies of any agendas and/or minutes held in relation to the governance or management of the SVRU for financial years: 2020/2021, 2021/2022, 2022/2023, 2023/2024.

Under this section of your request I enclose most of the information you have requested. Please note as above, a number of the documents have been redacted for personal information and information that is out of scope.

5. Copies of any documentation in electronic or written form (to include emails) from Officers or Members of Police Staff to Scottish Government Ministers or staff which relate to concerns, investigations or enquiries regarding the management, operation, finance or health and safety within the SVRU since its inception in 2005 but in the past 4 years as a minimum.

As set out for the first part of your request, the blanket nature of your request meant that we had to search very widely to try and find the information you have requested. These searches again provided an exceptionally large number of results and therefore exceeded the upper cost limit of £600 under section 12 of FOISA.

As set out above, you may wish to consider reducing the scope of your request to bring the cost of retrieving the information below £600.

Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above. If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.

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.