Scottish Government consultations and costs to produce: FOI release

Information requested

“The total cost to produce and analysis the following consultations” followed by a list of Scottish Government consultations.

As set out in your request acknowledgement email, your request has more than one question contained within and we have therefore split this into a number of separate requests to make sure that each question is answered by the appropriate subject matter colleague.

Response

This response relates to Case One - 202400434448 which encompasses the following consultations:

1. Cultural engagement in Scotland: what is it and why does it matter?
2. EURO 2028: Commercial Rights Protection
3. Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill
4. National Event Strategy review and refresh - Scotland: the perfect stage
5. Review of National Outcomes: call for evidence
6. Review of the National Outcomes
7. International Culture Strategy
8. Electoral reform consultation
9.  Access to information rights in Scotland

Response to your request

I have enclosed some of the requested information in tabular form below, which sets out the total external costs to produce and analyse each consultation in the above list.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested. The cost information we have provided relates directly to products and services which the Scottish Government has procured externally and which fall within the scope of your request. An exemption under Section 17(1) of FOISA (Information not held) applies to the information requested for Consultation 1 and 11 because no external work was procured.

Please note that policy development, stakeholder engagement, consultation, analysis and related activities are routinely carried out by Civil Servants on a daily basis across the Scottish Government, working across multi-disciplinary teams and on multiple workstreams simultaneously. Accurate costings for specific activities are, therefore, not available.

The table below sets out the total external cost to the Scottish Government to date to produce and analyse the following consultations requested in Case One – 202400434448:

Number as per original request	Consultation	Cost
1	Cultural engagement in Scotland: what is it and why does it matter?	£0 (An exemption under Section 17(1) of FOISA (Information not held) applies to the information requested because no external work was procured.)
2	EURO 2028: Commercial Rights Protection	£24,027.40
6	Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill	£17,159.24
10	National Event Strategy review and refresh - Scotland: the perfect stage	£21,630.37
11	Review of National Outcomes: call for evidence	£0 (An exemption under Section 17(1) of FOISA (Information not held) applies to the information requested because no external work was procured.)
12	Review of the National Outcomes	£2,642.32
13	International Culture Strategy	£7,986.75
14	Electoral reform consultation	£41,413.43
15	Access to information rights in Scotland	£891.79
	Total	£115,751.30

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.