Uplift to the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) budget announcement: FOI release

Information requested

1. Copies of all briefing materials from officials to the First Minister and the Housing Minister in relation to the announcement made on Friday 26 August of the £80m uplift to the AHSP budget.

2. A full financial breakdown of the announcement to uplift the AHSP budget by £80m made on 26 April 2024.

3. Copies of all correspondence between the First Minister, his officials, and the Housing Minister, his officials or/ and the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, or/ and and her officials, and or the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and/ or her officials which relates to the decision to uplift the AHSP Budget by £80m on 26 April 2024. I would like this request to apply to any recorded correspondence produced or received between 20 April 2024 and 29 April 2024.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you have requested. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested in relation to questions 1 and 3 because an exemption under section 30(b)(i) of FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why this exemption applies is explained in the Annex to this letter.

For question 2 above, the answer to your question is the additional £80m will provide up to £40m in 2024-25, with an equivalent commitment in 2025-26 to be confirmed subject to the standard budget setting processes.

ANNEX

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

An exemption applies, subject to the public interest test

An exemption under section 30(b)(i) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. Documents containing free and frank provision of advice to Scottish Ministers have been withheld.

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 as disclosure would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially the free and frank provision of advice.

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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 202400411457 - Information released - Attachment

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