Flood risk management spend: EIR release

Information requested

1. “Can I ask how much of the £150m additional capital funding planned by the Scottish Government for flood risk management over five years from 2021/22 has been spent in total?”

2. “How much has been spent (outturn) for each year since and including 2021/22 and so far in the part year of 2024/25?”

3. “What is the budget for each of the five years?”

4. “How much of the long-standing £42m annual flood risk management funding was given directly to councils in each of the years referred to in 2, and what is the budget for all the five years. Is this money given directly councils and is it ringfenced?”

5. “How much of the £60m allocated to Scotland to support Scotland's flood responses in the wake of Storm Babet has been committed to flood-hit areas? Can you detail what the projects were and what the spend was?”

6. “If there is no spend, can you explain why it is that this £60m was not utilised as extra money from the UK government? And if the Scottish Government did not think it was extra money, can you explain what was done to try and get this money, or to liaise with UK ministers about any false information regarding this?”

7. “Can you publish all correspondence digitally or otherwise regarding this extra money that was to be received?”

8. “How many councils applied for money from this pot and how much did they receive?”

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the Purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Question 1

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold information relating to how much of the £150 million additional capital funding has been spent in total. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

It may help if I explain that the Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on flood protection, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

You may wish to contact local authorities directly as they may be able to provide the information you are seeking. Further information on how to contact local authorities can be found here.

The Scottish Government has also previously published information in relation to funding applications which I have included below for your convenience:

• Proposed Flood Protection schemes in Scotland: EIR release
• Cost of Scottish flood protection schemes: EIR release

The above noted exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Under regulation 5(1) of the EIRs, a Scottish public authority that holds environmental information must make it available when requested to do so. This duty is not absolute. In some cases, information is excepted from disclosure, under regulations 10 and 11 of the EIRs. However, all of the exceptions in regulation 10 (and parts of regulation 11) are subject to a public interest test. To clarify, even though we do not hold the information, because we are using EIRs Exception 10(4)(a) in response to your request, we are required to apply a public interest test.

Guidance can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document.

Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

Question 2

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold information relating to the yearly spend of local authorities on flood risk management. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

You may wish to contact local authorities directly as they may be able to provide the information you are seeking. Further information on how to contact local authorities can be found here.

The above noted exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Under regulation 5(1) of the EIRs, a Scottish public authority that holds environmental information must make it available when requested to do so. This duty is not absolute. In some cases, information is excepted from disclosure, under regulations 10 and 11 of the EIRs. However, all of the exceptions in regulation 10 (and parts of regulation 11) are subject to a public interest test. To clarify, even though we do not hold the information, because we are using EIRs Exception 10(4)(a) in response to your request, we are required to apply a public interest test.

Guidance can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document.

Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

Question 3

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Indicative budget allocations for each of the five years have previously been provided in response to Parliamentary Question S6W-07804 and can be found here.

Question 4

All of the annual flood risk management funding is allocated to local authorities. It is baselined in the local authority capital grant. As the budget is £42 million per year, the overall budget across five years totals £210 million. 80% of the funding is for large flood protection schemes, and is allocated across viable Cycle 1 flood protection schemes. The remaining 20% is allocated for other flood spend by local authorities on a methodology agreed with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), according to the proportion of total flood-vulnerable properties that each local authority possesses.

Questions 5, 6 and 8

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold information relating to an additional £60 million of funding allocated to Scotland to support Scotland’s flood responses in the wake of Storm Babet and, subsequently, the number of councils who applied to receive part of this and any funding awarded. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs confirming that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

It may help if I explain that the £60 million figure referred to by the UK Government as being available for flood response is simply a reallocation of already committed spend. The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting those impacted communities, but there was no additional funding for the Scottish Government to support the recovery.

The Scottish Government has also previously published information in relation to Storm Babet funding that you may find helpful and can be found here.

The above noted exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. It is important to note that although we do not hold the information and have applied Regulation 10(4)(a) – information not held, it is a requirement that we have to apply the public interest test.

Under regulation 5(1) of the EIRs, a Scottish public authority that holds environmental information must make it available when requested to do so. This duty is not absolute. In some cases, information is excepted from disclosure, under regulations 10 and 11 of the EIRs. However, all of the exceptions in regulation 10 (and parts of regulation 11) are subject to a public interest test. To clarify, even though we do not hold the information, because we are using EIRs Exception 10(4)(a) in response to your request, we are required to apply a public interest test.

Guidance can be found in the Key Concepts section under ‘Information Not Held’ and ‘The Public Interest Test’ in the attached Scottish Information Commissioner Briefings and Guidance document.

Further guidance on the public interest test can also be found on page 8 of the Scottish Information Commissioner guidance.

Question 7

We do not routinely publish correspondence and documentation relating to funding between the Scottish Government and the UK Government.

It may help if I explain that cross government communications in relation to Scottish Government policy development and by extension associated funding to enable the delivery of said policy would not be routinely published as government officials and ministers require a private space for the free and frank deliberation of policy.

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