New Scots Delivery Budget - Bus pilot funding: FOI release

Information requested

“The submission of 5 July also advised that the Minister for Equalities was considering an  option to allocate £750k of the New Scots Delivery Plan budget to support the bus pilot. However, the Minister decided to allocate this to another priority, with the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice subsequently advising on 12 August that this funding should be re-assessed and consideration given to not taking this forward due to the recent introduction of emergency spending controls.”

Based on the contents of this email, I am requesting the following information:

1. Confirmation of where the £750k was being considered to allocated instead of the bus pilot. In other words, which other priority was potentially getting the funding instead of the bus pilot.

Please specify which priority the above email correspondence refers to.

2. A copy of the correspondence that the email refers to when it says “the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice subsequently advising on 12 August that this funding should be re assessed”.

This correspondence presumably came in and around the 12th August. Please include full correspondence that relates to the Cabinet Secretary communicating their feelings about the funding on that day.

3. Confirmation of whether or not the New Scots Delivery Plan budget was cut or reduced from August onwards of this year.

The above email refers to “funding should be re-assessed and consideration given to not taking this forward”.

Please reveal if any funding was diverted or taken away from the New Scots Delivery budget and also:

(i) how much funding
(ii) where that funding was allocated instead

Response

I have split our response into three parts:

Answer to Question 1

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the information you have requested because of exemptions under Section 30(b)(ii) Free and frank exchange of views for purpose of deliberation and Section 38(1)(b) personal information of FOISA applies to that information and there is also some information which falls out of scope of the request.

The remaining information is covered by section 25(1) Information is otherwise accessible from our reply to your previous FOI 202400432251.

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. 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. 

An exemption under section 30(b)(ii) of FOISA (free and frank exchange of views) applies to all of the information requested. This exemption applies because disclosure would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation. This exemption recognises the need for Ministers and officials to have a private space within which to discuss and explore options before the Scottish Government reaches a settled public view. Disclosing the content of free and frank discussions on funding will substantially inhibit such discussions in the future, particularly because these discussions relate to a sensitive issue such as funding. 

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.

We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing Ministers and officials a private space within which to explore and refine the Government’s policy position on funding, until the Government as a whole can adopt a policy that is sound and likely to be effective. This private thinking space is essential to enable all options to be properly considered, so that good policy decisions can be taken. Premature disclosure is likely to undermine the full and frank discussion of issues between Ministers and officials, which in turn will undermine the quality of the policy making process, which would not be in the public interest.

Answer to Question 2

I enclose a copy of some of the information you have requested at Document 1.

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 exemptions under Section 29(1)(b) Communications between Ministers and Section 38(1)(b) personal information of FOISA apply to that information.

An exemption under section 29(1)(b) of FOISA (Ministerial communications) applies to some the information requested because it relates to communications between Scottish Ministers. 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. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing Ministers a private space within which policy positions can be explored and refined, until the Government as a whole can adopt a policy that is sound and likely to be effective.

This private thinking space also allows for all options to be properly considered, so that good policy decisions can be taken. Premature disclosure is likely to undermine the full and frank discussion of issues between Ministers, which in turn will undermine the quality of the decision making process. 

Answer to Question 3

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because there has been no re-prioritisation or budget cut made. 

Ministers are committed to the New Scots refugee integration strategy delivery plan. The Scottish Government has ensured that we have enhanced the support we are providing to New Scots in 2024-25, despite a very challenging financial context. We have provided over £3.8m of grant funding towards the delivery of the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy in 2024-25.

Additionally, we continue to fund a number of third sector organisations to support refugee integration. This funding totals £488,000 in 2024-25.

This investment represents an increase in the funding the Scottish Government has provided in previous years, to mitigate the impact of the end of EU funding.

The Scottish Government has to make decisions to deliver balanced and sustainable spending, while pursuing our ambition to deliver support for integration. As such, the New Scots budget has not been cut, but decisions on spend based on indicative allocations have been subject to corporate spending controls. As have all budgets across Scottish Government.

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

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 202400436690 - Information released - Annex

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