Costs for the Scottish International Offices: FOI release

Information requested

Costs for Scottish International Offices for 2023/24 please.

Also, please break down costs for each of the offices and provide further breakdown as follows for each office: staff costs, number of staff (ie diplomatic staff/locally-engaged staff), travel and expenses, office costs including rent.

Response

I enclose some of the information you requested.

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 which is explained in our response.

You will see that the only rental figure provided is that for Brussels. All other offices are based within a British Embassy or High Commission and staff have accommodation provided by the FCDO to whom we pay an "on platform" charge of which the accommodation cost is included in the overall annual charge.

The table below, which details the Scottish Government’s international offices overseas annual budget allocation for 2023/2024, includes salary costings, upkeep, day-today running and hospitality costs and does incorporate the figures noted under the Travel & Expenses and Rent column as well as FCDO platform charges.

	Scottish Budget	SG Civil Servants	Country Based staff	Travel & Expenses	Rent
	£million
	2023/24
Scottish Government Office China	0.38	1	3	£10,500.00	On FCDO platform
Scottish Government Office United States	0.61	2	2	£29,000.00	On FCDO platform
Scottish Government Office Canada	0.46	2	1	£47,000.00	On FCDO platform
Scottish Government Office Paris	0.515	2	1	£10,700.00	On FCDO platform
Scottish Government Office Copenhagen	0.53	2	1	£8,900.00	On FCDO platform
Scotland House Brussels	1.828	10	5	£30,300.00	£224,200.00
Scottish Government Office Dublin	0.422	2	1	£5,000.00	On FCDO platform
Scottish Government Office Berlin	0.455	2	1	£11,700.00	On FCDO platform
Scotland House London	1.804	14	0	£13,200	£249,600

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