Consultation cost figures: FOI release

Information requested

“The total cost to produce and analysis the following consultations?”:

1. Consultation on a fairer Council Tax
2. Effective community engagement in local development planning guidance: consultation
3. Disqualification criteria for councillors: consultation on updating disqualification criteria for localauthority members
4. Local development plan evidence report - defining Gypsies and Travellers: consultation
5. Review of permitted development rights - phase 2 consultation
6. Local development planning - regulations and guidance: consultation
7. Local taxation - Valuation Appeals Committees etc: transfer of functions
8. Consultation on Penalty Charge Notices for Parking Enforcement

Response

This is a formal notice under Section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold some of the information you have requested.

It may help if I explain that Civil Servants (Scottish Government officials in this instance) operate flexibly across a range of policies and programmes according to the specific requirements of their work at any given time. They do not, as a matter of course, record the proportion of their time spent working on particular matters. I would also note that Scottish Government officials would be involved throughout the production and analysis stages of the consultation process (in terms of both internal work by officials and engagement with external third parties) which would constitute part of the overall total cost incurred.

As noted above officials do not record the proportion of their time spent on any given matter(s), subsequently it would not be possible to determine the internal Scottish Government costs attributed to staff time spent on the above consultations specified in your request which would form a part of the total overall cost.

Therefore, it is not possible to provide a “total cost” figure incurred by the Scottish Government for each of the consultations specified in your request. However, I have provided a partial cost figure for each consultation below for your convenience (please note that these figures do not include costs attributed to Scottish Government staff time as noted above):

Consultation	Cost (including VAT where it applies)
(1) Consultation on a fairer Council Tax	£48,039.52
(2) Effective community engagement in local development planning guidance: consultation	£1,481.87
(3) Disqualification criteria for councillors: consultation on updating disqualification criteria for local authority members	£435.00
(4) Local development plan evidence report - defining Gypsies and Travellers: consultation	£1,519.86
(5) Review of permitted development rights - phase 2 consultation	£1,992.50
(6) Local development planning - regulations and guidance: consultation	£15,350.00
(7) Local taxation - Valuation Appeals Committees etc: transfer of functions	£514.62
(8) Consultation on Penalty Charge Notices for Parking Enforcement	£0.00

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.