Ministerial cars and business rates relief: FOI release

Information requested

1. How much has it cost to run the Scottish Government's fleet of ministerial cars in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024? Can you supply a breakdown of these costs.
2. Could you supply a full list of what cars are included in this fleet in each of those years above?
3. All correspondence sent and received by the Scottish Government, including internally, all briefings, notes/minutes from meetings and analysis conducted about handing business rates relief to hospitality, leisure and retail premises, between December 1 2023 and the date of this FOI?

Response

The answer to your question is:

1. How much has it cost to run the Scottish Government's fleet of ministerial cars in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024? Can you supply a breakdown of these costs.

Full operating costs for the Government Car Service for the last four years are provided in the table below.

Year	Fuel Cost (£)	Vehicle Maintenance (£)	Staffing (£)	Private Hire (£)	Travel & Subsistence (£)	Total (£)
20-21	26,759.65	19,885.59	833,773.00	22,016.40	597.00	903,002
21-22	47,457.00	24,632.00	884,769.00	86,732.00	1,377.00	1,044,967
22-23	99,204.34	43,896.50	1,065,133.10	162,485.38	7,267.84	1,377,987
23-24	78,049.89	47,166.90	1,169,372.26	197,642.39	13,890.27	1,506,121.71

2. Could you supply a full list of what cars are included in this fleet in each of those years above?

20/21

Make and model	Number of vehicles
Kia E-Niro EV	1
Kia Optima PHEV	9
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	2
Skoda Superb	12
Tesla Model 3 EV	10
Volvo S90 PHEV	1
Volvo V90 PHEV	6
VW Passat PHEV	1

21/22

Make and model	Number of vehicles
Kia E-Nero EV	1
Kia EV6 EV	2
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV	2
Skoda Superb	7
Tesla Model 3 EV	10
Volvo S90 PHEV	1
Volvo V90 PHEV	6
VW Passat PHEV	1

22/23

Kia E-Niro EV	1
Kia EV6 EV	3
Kia Optima PHEV	8
Skoda Superb	1
Tesla Model 3 EV	10
Volvo S90 PHEV	1
Volvo V90 PHEV	6
VW Passat PHEV	1

23/24

Kia E-Niro EV	1
Kia EV6 EV	4
Kia Optima PHEV	8
Tesla Model 3 EV	10
Volvo S90 PHEV	1
Volvo V90 PHEV	9

3. All correspondence sent and received by the Scottish Government, including internally, all briefings, notes/minutes from meetings and analysis conducted about handing business rates relief to hospitality, leisure and retail premises, between December 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 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 their website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

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.