Fees to the British School of Brussels: FOI release

Information requested

The total cost of fees from the Scottish Government to the British School of Brussels in each year since 2014.

Response

In line with the policy applied by other government departments including the Welsh Government, the devolved government for Northern Ireland, FCDO and HMRC, Scottish Government Officers on overseas postings may have their children's school fees paid for by the Scottish Government. Parents who take their children with them when they are posted abroad with the Scottish Government are required to ensure that their children receive a full-time education as they would if they were resident in Scotland. The Scottish Government relies upon lists provided by the British diplomatic mission in the country they are based for approved schools.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, this is notice that under Section 17 of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. This is because the Scottish Public Finance Manual currently indicates that financial records should normally be retained for either 6 years or 2 years, depending on the type of record, following the end of the financial year in question. I can therefore only provide you with figures from 2018.

I have however included in this response, a table below showing the total cost of private school fees (rounded to the nearest £10k) paid by the Scottish Government for the children of overseas staff in all of our offices, since 2018 including Brussels.

2018/2019	£60k
2019/2020	£100k
2020/2021	£110k
2021/2022	£170k
2022/2023	£320k
2023/2024	£310k

An exemption under S38(1)(b) of FOISA also applies to some of the information requested because it contains personal data of staff and of their children. Typically our offices are staffed by just a few members of staff and releasing fees from any particular educational establishment in any country could run the risk of identifying the children of our officers. Section 38(1)(b) confers an absolute exemption and therefore is not subject to the 'public interest test' which means we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

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.