Decoration and art purchases by Scottish Government: FOI release

Information requested

1. Total expense, since 13 May 2021, by the Scottish Government on purchasing artwork for Scottish Government buildings.

2. Total expense, since 13 May 2021, by the Scottish Government on purchasing artwork for any other purpose, and a description of what these purposes have been.

3. Total expense, since 13 May 2021, by the Scottish Government on purchasing all other decorations for Scottish Government buildings.

4. Total expense, since 13 May 2021, by the Scottish Government on purchasing all other decorations for all other purposes than for decorating Scottish Government buildings, and a description of what these purposes have been.

5. A breakdown of the answers to 1, 2, 3, and 4 by individual purposes, providing

• Date of purchase
• Cost of purchase
• Name of artwork
• Name of artist
• Body purchased from

6. A short explanation of the rationale used in answering this response for classifying what a ‘decoration’ and/or ‘artwork’ is

Response

1. Information on total expenditure on artwork can be found here Scottish Government spend on photography or wall art: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). This includes expenditure for the First Ministers official residence, Bute House.

2. There has been no other expenditure on artwork.

3. Detail provided in the FOI release detailed above and the narrative in the table.

4. In 2021/22 £267 was spent on decoration purchases for Scottish Parliament. There have been no other purchases in this category.

5. A full breakdown for artwork purchased for Scottish Government buildings has been provided in the table below. As these are reproduction posters we have classified them as decoration.

The narrative excludes the following:
In 2022/23 £41.73 was spent on miscellaneous decoration purchases including printing a photograph.

Table detailing purchases

6. For these purposes, artwork has been classified as original wall art and photography artwork. Decoration has been defined as decorative wall hangings and ornaments.

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.