Government Car Service information: FOI release

Information requested

How much has the Scottish Government spent on the Government Car Service in 2023/24 and 2024/25 to date?

How many cars were in the Scottish Government Car Service in 2023/24 and 2024/25 to date?

How many FTE staff were working in the Scottish Government Car Service in 2023/24 and 2024/25 to date?

How much was spent by the Scottish Government on ministerial taxi journeys in each year from 2023/24 and 2024/25 to date?

How much was spent by the Scottish Government on expenses for ministers for travel in their own cars while on Scottish Government business 2023/24 and 2024/25 to date?

For Qs 1-5, could these all be broken down further to just include data on Neil Gray?

Response

We are able to provide some of the information, however exemptions apply to other aspects of your request.

Government Car Service (GCS) total operating costs, number of vehicles and total FTE staff for 2023/24 and 2024/25 up to 15/11/2024.

Year	Total number of vehicles	Total number of FTE staff (2)	Total operating costs
2023/24	33	28	£1,506,122
2024/25 (1)	31	26	£724,040

1. Period covered 01/04/24 until 30/09/24. Costs for the period 01/10/24 to 15/11/2024 are not currently available due to transition to new finance system.

2. Includes both driving and office staff.

Exemption 25(1) applies to some of the information you have requested regarding taxi and personal expenditure in instances where Ministers have used their own cars for 2023/24 and 2024/25 up until the end of August 2024.

All Ministerial taxi and motor mileage expenditure are routinely and proactively published, and can be found via the following link:

Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

This is a formal notice under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.

If, however, you are unable to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Ministerial taxi and motor mileage expenditure are routinely and proactively published and information covering September to October 2024 will be published in the next 12 weeks.

You will be able to find that information via the link above.

This is a formal notice under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. This exemption allows public authorities to refuse to disclose information if they already plan to publish it within the next 12 weeks.

Our application of this exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information now outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have concluded that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, since providing this information at this point, given that it will shortly be published, would not be a responsible use of public resources and therefore not be in the public interest.

GCS vehicles and drivers are operated as a shared resource, and as consequence frequently cover multiple customers throughout the day, therefore the calculation per individual is not possible.

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.