Costing for the referral made to Supreme Court and internal predication: FOI release

Information requested

• The total Scottish Government (including civil service) costings for the referral, and case due to be made at the Supreme Court this October on the legality of holding another independence referendum. This should also encompass legal advice costings.
• If there is any internal prediction as to how much the Lord Advocates referral and the case due to be made by the Scottish Government on this issue in the Supreme Court will cost.

For a time span, if applicable, I would be looking for since the last Holyrood Elections, so May 2021 to present.

Response

The total Scottish Government (including civil service) costings for the referral, and case due to be made at the Supreme Court this October on the legality of holding another independence referendum. This should also encompass legal advice costings.

A small number of civil servants have been involved in the work in relation to the Lord Advocate’s reference to the Supreme Court, and in relation to the wider work on referendum legislation and other preparations for the proposed referendum, but as civil servants are not required to record the time spent on individual tasks we cannot provide an exact figure.

Work related to the 2022 Programme for Government commitment to introduce a Referendum Bill to enable a referendum on 19 October 2023, including policy activity undertaken in relation to the Lord Advocate’s Reference to the Supreme Court, is coordinated by the Referendums Scotland Bill team. The Referendums Scotland Bill team is a team of four civil servants in the Scottish Government’s Constitution and Cabinet Directorate. Work in relation to the Reference forms part of the work of this team, and the team’s remit covers a number of other duties.

As of 28 June 2022, the Scottish Government has spent £27,193.84 on external counsel advising on the referral to the Supreme Court.

As set out in our response to PQ S6W-09691 (available at S6W-09691 | Scottish Parliament Website), the Scottish Government intends to proactively publish information about the costs of the litigation. Accordingly, an exemption under Section 27 (information intended for future publication) 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. The reasons why this exemption applies are set out in Annex B.

If there is any internal prediction as to how much the Lord Advocates referral and the case due to be made by the Scottish Government on this issue in the Supreme Court will cost.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

Your request asked for an estimate of the total costs of the Supreme Court Reference. As the litigation is ongoing, and the costs may be affected by a number of factors, it is not possible to provide an estimate of the total costs.

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 http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI - 202200316878 - Annex B

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