Hosting the Cycling World Championships & Commonwealth Games 2026 and Scottish Netball documentation: FOI release

Information requested

1. Could you supply the full costs of hosting the Cycling World Championships, including a full breakdown of costs and the original budget for it?

2. Could you supply all documentation held by the Government about the costs of hosting the Cycling World Championships, including correspondence, policy notes, analysis, briefings and minutes/notes from meetings, from the past three months?

3. Why did the Ernst and Young report not include the full cost of the championships?

4. Could you supply all documentation held by the Government about Scotland potentially hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2026, including correspondence, policy notes, analysis, briefings and minutes/notes from meetings, from the past three months?

5. Could you supply all documentation held by the Government about Scottish Netball, including correspondence, policy notes, analysis, briefings and minutes/notes from meetings, from the past three months?

Response

Our aim is to provide information whenever possible, to assist in doing so I would like to deal with each of these FOI’s individually.

1. Could you supply the full costs of hosting the Cycling World Championships, including a full breakdown of costs and the original budget for it?

As per your request, I am providing separately a copy of some of the information you requested.

The reason why this exemption applies is explained below.

The full costs of hosting the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships are not yet available, with work ongoing with 2023 Cycling World Championships Ltd on budget finalisation. This information will be published within the next 12 weeks.

In light of this we are unable to share the requested information at this stage. Due to Section 27 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) we are applying the relevant exemption.

The exemption in section 27(1) allows public authorities to refuse to disclose information if they already plan to publish it within the next 12 weeks, but only if it is reasonable to delay disclosing the information until the planned date of publication.

In relation to the request for details of the original budget, the information is provided separately, with redactions applied for areas of the document that are out of scope and where relevant exemptions apply.

The reason these exemptions apply is explained below.

An exemption under section 33(1)(b) of FOISA also applies to a small amount of the information you have requested. Information is exempt under section 33(1)(b) if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the commercial interests of any person. “Person” includes a public authority, company and partnership, in this case the Scottish Government.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government, and to help account for the expenditure of public money. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the commercial and financial interests of the Scottish Government, to ensure that we are always able to obtain the best value for public money in relation to mega events. 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.

2. Could you supply all documentation held by the Government about the costs of hosting the Cycling World Championships, including correspondence, policy notes, analysis, briefings and minutes/notes from meetings, from the past three months?

As per your request, I have provided all documentation the Scottish Government hold about the costs of holding the Cycling World Championships from the past 3 months.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some the information you have requested because some of it is out of scope and other exemptions apply. These include exemptions under section S38(1)(b) (personal information), and section 33(1)(b) (disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the commercial interests of any person or organisation).

The reasons why these exemptions apply are explained below.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. Information is exempt under section 38(1)(b) if it is personal data of a third party, i.e. the names and contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 1998.

This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', therefore we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. An exemption under section 30(b)(i) applies to some of the information you have requested. This exemption provide for a “safe space” in which organisations, businesses and other stakeholders can write honestly and frankly to the Scottish Government on any issue they are dealing with, without any fear that the correspondence will later be released into the public domain.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent, and accountable government. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing a private space within which officials can provide full and frank advice and views, as part of the process of exploring and refining the Scottish Government’s and third party’s decision making process on such issues until a position that is sound and likely to be effective is adopted. This private thinking space is essential to enable all options to be properly considered, based on the best available advice, so that good policy decisions can be taken. Disclosure is likely to undermine the full and frank discussion of issues between Scottish Government officials and third party representatives, which in turn will undermine the quality of the decision-making process, which would not be in the public interest.

An exemption under section 33(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. Information is exempt under section 33(1)(b) if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice substantially the commercial interests of any person. “Person” includes a public authority, company and partnership, in this case the Scottish Government.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open and transparent government, and to help account for the expenditure of public money. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting the commercial and financial interests of the Scottish Government, to ensure that we are always able to obtain the best value for public money in relation to mega events. 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.

One of the documents that is relevant to your request is the 2023/24 accounts for 2023 Cycling World Championships Ltd, which is available from Companies House with the following link, 2023 Cycling World Championships Limited. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

3. Why did the Ernst and Young report not include the full cost of the championships?

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold any information relating to this question.

It was never the intention for 2023 UCI Cycling World Championship costs to be included in the Ernst and Young Evaluation report. Rather, the purpose of the report was to analyse economic, environmental and social impacts. Costs of events of this nature are confirmed to the public through alternative means and read alongside the socio-economic impact report.

4. Could you supply all documentation held by the Government about Scotland potentially hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2026, including correspondence, policy notes, analysis, briefings and minutes/notes from meetings, from the past three months?

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. The searches for information which falls within the scope of your original request under Q4 have resulted in the identification of a substantial number of documents, including emails and papers in a variety of different formats. We have estimated that to comply with the Q4 request would substantially exceed the upper cost limit. This is because some of these items may require redaction: a sampling exercise indicates that this requirement to physically redact, together with the original time taken to identify within scope documents, will substantially exceed the upper cost limit of £600. Given this we are citing section 12 of FOISA, given the volume of information we would require to search through to properly comply with the request. 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. [You may be able to reduce the scope of the original Q4 request by indicating the specific information or subject matter you are interested in. This may include specifying the subject(s) or business area(s) in which you are interested or narrowing the original timeframe.]

You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

5. Could you supply all documentation held by the Government about Scottish Netball, including correspondence, policy notes, analysis, briefings and minutes/notes from meetings, from the past three months?

As per your request, I have provided all documentation between the Scottish Government and Netball Scotland from the past 3 months.

An exemption under sections S.38(1)(b) Personal Information of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. This exemption prevents us releasing the personal information of officials who are below the rank of Senior Civil Servant. This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

An exemption under section 29(1)(a) of FOISA (formulation or development of government policy) applies to some the information requested because it relates to the development] of the Scottish Government’s policy on position of trust legislation. 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. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in high quality policy and decision-making, and in the properly considered implementation and development of policies and decisions.

This means that Ministers and officials need to be able to consider all available options and to debate those rigorously, to fully understand their possible implications. Their candour in doing so will be affected by their assessment of whether the discussions on position of trust will be disclosed in the near future, when it may undermine or constrain the Government’s view on that policy while it is still under discussion and development.

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.

FOI 202400423239 - Information released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

1.1 MB