Scottish Government court cases costs: FOI release

Information requested

'Could you supply how much has been spent by the Scottish Government on court cases in the last three years, with a breakdown per year, what the money was spent on, what case it is for, and the result of the case?.'

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.

The following table shows the cost on court cases handled internally in the last 3 years.

2022/23	2023/24	2024/25	Total
£3,435,084.57	£2,506,419.01	£634,454.76	£6,575,958.34

Annex A includes the breakdown on the cases in the last three years.

The table only includes the costs incurred in the timeframe that you have requested. Therefore the table may not contain the full cost incurred for each case to date, if costs where incurred, in previous financial years.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Costs incurred through our outsourced contracts are not included as the information is not held in a format that allows us to separate out the costs incurred specifically in relation to matters which resulted in court cases. There is no business need to capture this information as the The Scottish Government, like all Governments, is necessarily involved in litigation given the range and importance of its responsibilities. The outlays incurred in litigation are, like all other costs of Government, subject to rules about public finance decision-making and accountability. It may be helpful to explain that costs incurred through the frameworks contracts are reported on. The information on this spend has been released previously under FOI.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption(s) under section(s) s.38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. We are unable to disclose all of the litigation court case names as this is a clear GDPR issue. On that basis, we have produced and provided you with a redacted list of the litigation court case names within the time frame you have requested.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested for result of the cases within the last 3 years would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. 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. Due to the number of documents that would be required to review to get the outcome of each court case across the timeframe in your request, the time required to sift each document to identify the specific information would exceed the upper cost limit of £600.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. If you narrow this request further, for example, ask about specific case(s) this would help us answer your question. 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.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202400431957 - Information Released - Annex A

File type

6 page PDF

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136.8 kB