The National Islands Plan budget: EIR release

Information requested

A summary of the spending profile of any budget associated with the National Islands Plan.

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.

Response to your request

You asked four questions which we have addressed individually. You asked:

I am looking for a summary of the spending profile of any budget associated with the national islands plan.

1. Can you confirm if the full amount of £25.8m has been spent?
a. If there is remaining budget how much is left?

The £25.8 million Islands Programme supports the delivery of the National Islands Plan.

The spend for the Islands Programme to date is summarised below:

2021/22	2022/23	2023/24	Total
£9,214,023	£6,500,574	£4,541,088	£20,255,685

The Scottish Budget sets out the proposed spend for the 2024/25 financial year.

2. Can you provide a breakdown of the islands plan spend profile per annum, including (but not necessarily exclusive to) information on the following areas:

a. Young Islanders Network
b. Carbon Neutral Islands
c. Scottish Government staff time (was this included or excluded from the original budget?)
d. budget directed to Island Local Authorities (breakdown by local authority)
e. budget directed to Scottish Islands Federation (including if this has been to deliver outcomes of other projects associated with the National Islands Plan)
f. budget directed to utilising second sector organisations and by organisation (e.g. inspiring Scotland, Scottish Futures Trust, HIE. etc.)
g. How much of the budget has been spent on ICIAs?
h. any other spend that may be omitted from the above.

In answer to your questions 2 a), d), e), f) and h), please find a breakdown in the attached Annex A.

In answer to your question 2 b), the spend per annum for Carbon Neutral Islands is:

2022/23	2023/24
£1,025,150	£2,080,691

2 c) Scottish Government staff time is not covered by the Islands Programme.

2 g) Spend associated with Island Communities Impact Assessments (ICIAs) is not covered by the Islands Programme specifically. However we have spent £30,000 creating additional materials to support those required to undertake assessments.

3. How has the £5m originally profiled for the Islands Bond programme reprofiled?

When the Islands Bond policy was being considered, there was not a £5 million allocation in the budget. Initially there was an allocation of £300,000 however once the Islands Bond was withdrawn, this investment was utilised to support projects that delivered on priorities identified by island communities.

4. How much, and for what, additional funds have been levered for island related issues that were not considered part of the original budget?

In addition to the original £25.8 million Islands Programme, funding was made available for the Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund. This was £1.4 million in 2022/23 and £1.0 million in 2023/24.

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 202400405250 - Information Released - Annex A

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