Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/00686
Date received: 4 March 2018
Date responded: 29 March 2018

Information requested

1. The costs of the six publications of Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012 (the section 6 analysis and the five annual charges analyses), including whether VAT is paid on these or not?

2. How much court time has been involved in all the prosecutions, under both sections, in the whole period of the operation of the Act to date, including an approximate costing for that court time, either per hour, or per day?

3. An estimate of the amount of extra police resources that have been expended in enforcing the Act and the cost of that?

4. How much Scottish Government staff time was devoted to framing the Act, implementing it and publishing and publicising the reports on the operations of the Act over and above that covered by question 1?

5. How much parliamentary time was expended, in terms of Member hours (or days) in debating the Act, reviewing it and now deciding to repeal it and provide an approximate Member per hour, or Member per day rate which is used for overall calculation of the cost to the public purse of parliamentary activity, including Members' time and that of secretaries, assistants, consultants and advisors, as well as non-employment related expenses?

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Section 17(1) of FOISA (information not held) requires the Scottish Government to notify you if it does not have the information you requested. I will take each of your questions in turn.

Question 1: The cost of the six Scottish Government publications, which were carried out internally, are outlined below:

• An evaluation of Section 6 of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012 (http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/06/5693) - £815.26 (£978.31 inc VAT) paid to APS for formatting and publishing.

• Charges reported under the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act (2012) in 2012-13

(http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2013/06/4590/0) - £302.57 (£363.08 inc VAT) paid to APS for formatting and publishing.

• Charges reported under the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act (2012) in 2013-14

(http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2014/06/8566) - £371.12 (£445.34 inc VAT) paid to APS for formatting and publishing.

• Charges reported under the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act (2012) in 2014-15(http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/06/7911) - £360.26 (£432.31 inc VAT) paid to APS for formatting and publishing.

• Charges reported under the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act (2012) in 2015-16 (http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/06/5808) - £408.61 (£486.73 inc VAT) paid to APS for formatting and publishing.

• Charges reported under the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act (2012) in 2016-17 (http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/06/7620) - £418.01 (£501.61 inc VAT) paid to APS for formatting and publishing.

Question 2: The Scottish Government is not responsible for keeping a record of court time or costings of court time. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. You may want to contact the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) to ask if they hold this information.

You can email the COPFS FoI team at: foi@copfs.gsi.gov.uk

Question 3: The Scottish Government is not responsible for keeping a record of police resources. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. You may want to contact Police Scotland to ask if they hold this information. You can email Police Scotland's FoI team at: foi@scotland.pnn.police.uk

Question 4: The Scottish Government does not keep a record of staff time spent on individual pieces of work. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Officials work on a number of different policy areas and workstreams simultaneously and so it is not possible tocalculate the staff time spent framing and implementing the Act and publishing and publicising the reports on the operations of the Act.

Question 5: The Scottish Government is not responsible for keeping a record of parliamentary time. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. You may want to contact the Scottish Parliament to ask if they hold this information. You can email the Scottish Parliament's FoI team at: foi.officer@parliament.scot

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