COVID-19 social media spend: FOI release

Information requested

1. The total money spent by the Scottish Government on marketing and advertising relating to COVID- 19, COVID-19 Lockdown & Restrictions and the COVID-19 vaccines from 2020 to 2023.
   
   Please provide a breakdown of the spend for each financial year, by each form of media - television, radio, digital, outdoor, social media, newspapers/press et al.
    
2. The total money spent by the Scottish Government on marketing and advertising relating to the COVID-19 vaccines only from 2020 to 2023.
   
   Please provide a breakdown of the spend for each financial year, by each form of media - television, radio, digital, outdoor, social media, newspapers/press et al.
    
3. The total money spent by the Scottish Government on holding press briefings relating to COVID-19 from 2020 to 2023. This should include a breakdown of the costs for briefings involving Nicola Sturgeon and a separate breakdown of costs for those Government COVID-19 press conferences where Nicola Sturgeon was not in attendance. 
    
4. Can the Government confirm the total money paid to the University of Edinburgh for advice on COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2023. This should include payments made for the consultation advice from the likes of Devi Sridhar, Linda Bauld et al.
    
5. Can the Government confirm the fee paid to Public Health Experts, such as Devi Sridhar and Linda Bauld, for making TV or Radio appearances, where they were representing Scottish Government or distributing Scottish Government advice.

Response

1. Scottish Government marketing spend is recorded by financial year and published annually. Financial years 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 are available to view at https://gov.scot/publications/marketing-spend. 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 listed, please let us know and a paper copy can be supplied.
   
   Marketing spend for financial year 2022/2023 has not yet been published. The following table provides figures for marketing spend by media type for this time period relating to the topics listed. Please note these figures do not include any production costs associated with these marketing campaigns.

Media Type	Spend
TV	£241,349
Radio	£39,572
Outdoor	£121,247
Digital (incl. Social Media)	£417,340
Press	£0
Total	£819,508

2. Scottish Government marketing spend is recorded by financial year and published annually. Financial years 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 are available to view at https://gov.scot/publications/marketing-spend. 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 listed, please let us know and a paper copy can be supplied.
   
   In financial year 2022/2023 there was no marketing spend by the Scottish Government on COVID-19 vaccines as this marketing activity was delivered by Public Health Scotland.
    
3. The following table provides the breakdown of the costs for COVID-19 briefings, split by financial year.`

Financial Year	Cost
2020/2021	£25,586.67
2021/2022	£5,719.80
2022/2023	£0
Total	£31,306.47

.The only external cost incurred for the briefings was for British Sign Language (BSL) translation. These costs were incurred regardless of whether the former First Minister was in attendance.
 

4. £1.12 million was paid to Edinburgh University in the period 2020-2023. However, the Scottish Government does not track or categorise expenditure on the basis of 'advice' and therefore while this spend relates to COVID-19 it is not limited to 'advice'. The majority of the expenditure, £1.062 million, relates to COVID-19 research projects that were awarded after an open competition by the Chief Scientist Office.
    
5. No fee was paid to Public Health Experts for making TV or radio appearances representing the Scottish Government or distributing Scottish Government advice.

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