Cost of the Building a New Scotland series and the number of staff in the Constitutional Futures Division: FOI release

Information requested

1) Since 2011, an annual breakdown of costs associated with the production of the White Paper on Independence or Independence Papers as part of the Building a New Scotland Series.

2) Over the same time period, an annual breakdown of the number of Civil Servants working in the Government's "Scottish Government’s Constitutional Futures Division" or its predecessors, including a breakdown of their grades, and overall salary costs.

3) The costs associated with the Scottish Government's decision to reference the question of an independence referendum to the Supreme Court.

Response

Part 1 - Since 2011, an annual breakdown of costs associated with the production of the White Paper on Independence or Independence Papers as part of the Building a New Scotland Series

Details of the publication costs of both Scotland’s Future: Your Guide to an independent Scotland, and the Building a New Scotland series have previously been published by the Scottish Government at the following links:

Independence spending 2014 – June 2022: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Building a New Scotland papers: costs - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

It is not possible to provide you with an annual figure of other associated costs with this work. This is because this relates to work which was taken forward by civil servants as part of their normal duties supporting the Scottish Government and in line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not routinely recorded as there is no business need to do this. This is a formal notice under S.17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

Part 2 - Over the same time period, an annual breakdown of the number of Civil Servants working in the Government's "Scottish Government’s Constitutional Futures Division" or its predecessors, including a breakdown of their grades, and overall salary costs.

There is not a particular point in the year when Constitutional Futures Division (CFD) annually records details of its number of staff and their grades. However, it is possible to provide details of what CFD’s number of staff and their grades were at the time a Freedom of Information request is received and as such, at 8 August 2024, details are as follows:

1 SCS Deputy Director, 2 x C3, 5 x C2, 4 x C1, 1 x B3, 2 x B2, 3 x B1

Additionally, the Scottish Government has answered a number of Freedom of Information requests over recent years giving details of the number CFD staff and their grades at the time the request was received and they can be found at:

Preparatory work on referendum on Scottish independence: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Preparations for a second independence referendum: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Preparations and costs of Independence Prospectus: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Independence referendum and prospectus resources: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Constitutional Futures Division: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Proposed Independence Prospectus: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Staff on Independence Prospectus: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Staff working on the proposed independence prospectus: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Independence prospectus staffing structure: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Staffing information regarding independence work: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Staff working on Independence Prospectus: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Civil servants working to develop the proposed independence: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Regarding your query on salary costs, it may first of all be helpful to explain that the CFD did not exist until the end of 2019. CFD’s work was paused in March 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic started, and staff were re-deployed to other business until the months following the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, when CFD’s work resumed. It is not possible to provide an annual salary figure over this period as CFD did not exist for a full financial year during this time. This is a formal notice under S.17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The Scottish Government has previously published details of CFD’s salary costs for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years, and these can be found at the links below.

Information regarding the Independence Prospectus, Constitutional Futures Division and the Minister for Independence: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Part 3 - The costs associated with the Scottish Government's decision to reference the question of an independence referendum to the Supreme Court.

The Lord Advocate referred to the Supreme Court the devolution issue and question of whether legislation providing for an independence referendum would relate to a reserved matter in terms of the Scotland Act 1998. Details of the costs associated with this have previously been published at the following link:

Independence referendum: Supreme Court referral costs - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

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