Scottish Government’s Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill costs and staffing: EIR release

Information requested

What is the total cost of work on the Scottish Government’s Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill? (such as work on drafting, introducing, and working on amendments for this Bill).

Response

A Bill team was established in advance of introduction to co-ordinate the work across the Scottish Government on the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill. The team comprises of one C1 and two B2s. The work on the Bill also draws on a range of other officials across the organisation who will contribute to varying extents as part of their wider responsibilities in supporting the Scottish Government. The pay scales for Scottish Government civil servants is available from – Financial rewards - Scottish Government Jobs. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not require to provide information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

I am unable to provide you with a figure for costs for work conducted by Scottish Government civil servants in connection with the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill, including drafting, introducing the Bill, and work on amendments for the Bill. This is because in line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not routinely recorded because there is no business need to do this. This is a formal notice under Section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

Some of the information you have requested is available in respect of publication costs associated with the impact assessments which accompany the Bill, and these are set out below:

• Business and regulatory impact assessment - £645.18 (inc. VAT)
• Equality impact assessment - £845.63 (inc. VAT)
• Child rights and wellbeing impact assessment - £322.24 (inc. VAT)
• Data protection impact assessment - £589.50 (inc. VAT)
• Strategic environmental assessment pre-screening notification - £335.88 (inc. VAT)
• Island communities impact assessment - £425.58 (inc. VAT)
• Fairer Scotland Duty summary - £347.02 (inc. VAT)

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