European Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF) related payments to Lead Partners: FOI release

Information requested

The minutes of a Programme Monitoring Committee meeting held in Atlantic Quay, Glasgow, on 14th November 2019, record Hilary Pearce, a Scottish Government Civil Servant, making the following remark about the Scottish Government’s position on making ESIF related payments to Lead Partners:

“Our position remains that the MA [ie Scot Gov] is unable to pay claims until the suspension is lifted. We are also waiting to see how quickly we may be able to have the suspension lifted.”

On 26th June 2024, the Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes, said this in the Scottish Parliament:

“On the first question, in relation to the minutes that she quotes, I say directly to her that at no point did the Scottish Government pause the payment to our partners of the funding that they had incurred. She is right to quote directly from the minutes, but I say unequivocally that the Scottish Government paid out the funding at our own risk. We recognised the costs that had been incurred, and the Scottish Government ensured that we paid out the funds to the partners.”

The information I am seeking is which of these two statements was true? Hilary Pearce’s statement on 19th November 2019, or Kate Forbes’ statement on 26th June 2024?

Response

Both statements were true at the time they were made. Events had developed significantly over this period as a consequence of the Managing Authority working with the European Commission and Lead Partners to address the issues that caused the suspension which meant meant no payments were paused.

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