Full costs incurred by Defence Policy Unit: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/02926
Date received: 30 November 2017
Date responded: 04 January 2017

Information requested

A summary of the full costs incurred by the Scottish Government to run the Defence Policy Unit (DPU), including salaries, other personnel costs and proportion of management and estates costs.

Response

The DPU comprises 6.3 members of staff (Full Time Equivalent). Their responsibilities cover a wide range of activities, from submitting timely briefing to Ministers on issues such as basing, health, housing and education, that affect the Armed Forces community in Scotland and working with Scottish Government colleagues to ensure delivery of Renewing Our Commitments, to managing and coordinating related visits, ceremonies and events. The team engages with the Ministry of Defence on proposals that affect Scotland and works closely with the many Armed Forces and Veterans stakeholders, for example to evaluate the recommendations of the Scottish Veterans Commissioner and implement changes where needed. The table below summarises the current position on numbers, grades and salary ranges for each individual working directly within the DPU:

1.3 x C2 £56488 - £67660
1 x C1 £46889 - £55828
2 x B3 £35269 - £42643
1 x B2 £28033 - £32130
1 x B1 £23617 - £26713

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the full cost information you have requested. The work of DPU requires engagement across many areas of Scottish Government, including with colleagues in Employability, Health and Housing divisions. However, there is no business need to record the time civil servants working across the Scottish Government have spent specifically on defence policy work. In addition, the DPU also reports to a Senior Civil Servant as defence falls within her portfolio. Again, there is no business requirement to record the proportion of management time she spends on each specific area with her portfolio.

Information about DPU's estates costs is not held as these costs are part of the wider Scottish Government estate and are not disaggregated to unit level.

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

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