Report of Council of International Education Advisers 2016-2018: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/01772
Date received: 27 June 2018
Date responded: 25 July 2018

Information requested

May I request information on the total costs of producing the final report of the Council of International Education Advisers 2016-2018, published yesterday?

Included in these costs, could I see a breakdown of the elements contributing to the total cost, including but not limited to:

1. Any and all expenses incurred by the International Advisers, from their initial approach in 2015 to the end of their contract, including eg travel expenses, accommodation, subsistence.

2. Any and all expenses incurred by the staff administrating the visits and subsequent creation of the report, including meeting rooms, hospitality, travel, staff time.

3. Any and all expenses incurred in the writing and publication of the report.

4. Any other expenses and costs incurred during the process of establishing this final report, including all meetings, visits, correspondence etc.

5. A breakdown of how much Scottish Government staff time has been spent on all aspects of the process from 2015 to present, with details of planned future hours if appropriate, and a breakdown of how much time has been spent by non-Scottish Government staff time has been spent on the process, if this information is held.

The date range for this request is 2015 – present.

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information or cannot provide you have requested. The summary of reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.

Response to to Q1

A detailed list of expenses incurred by the International Council of Education Advisers (ICEA) for its first 3 meetings (held in August/September 2016, February 2017 and September 2017) is available on the Scottish Government website at:

/publications/foi-17-02318/

The total costs of each meeting are also published and are available on the Scottish Government website at:

/groups/international-council-of-education-advisers/

At the moment we do not have finalised expenses for the Council's fourth meeting (which took place in April 2018). These expenses will, however, be published on the Scottish Government website as above over the next few weeks. They will appear under the heading "Disclosures".

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(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Response to Q2

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Support to the ICEA is provided by core Scottish Government staff as part of their normal duties; there are currently no identifiable resources assigned to working solely on the ICEA. As such it is not possible to separate the time and associated salary costs of staff as requested.

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

However, any expenses that Scottish Government staff incurred in supporting the Council including hospitality, meeting rooms and travel, are included in the total costs published and those can be found in the link below which was also provided in response to question 1.

/groups/international-council-of-education-advisers/

Please see combined staff expenses listed per meeting:

1st Meeting: £556.98

2nd Meeting: £456.93

3rd Meeting: £584.23

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(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Response to Q3

The report was written by ICEA members, all of whom give their time for free. While Scottish Government staff were involved in proof reading of the report, it is not, as set out above, possible to identify a specific cost for this activity. The cost of publishing the report was £828.43 (including VAT).

Response to Q4

All correspondence related to the development of the ICEA report was via email and did not incur a cost. No visits or meetings took place. As above, while Scottish Government staff were involved in this process, it is not possible to identify a specific cost for this activity.

Response to Q5

As above, the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested in relation to staff time and costs. Support to the ICEA is provided by core Scottish Government staff as part of their normal duties; there are currently no identifiable resources assigned to working solely on the ICEA. As such it is not possible to separate the time and associated salary costs of staff as requested. The amount of time that Scottish Government staff will spend supporting the ICEA in future will be dependent on plans for subsequent Council meetings which have yet to be determined.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. While non-Scottish Government staff have at times supported the work of the ICEA, we do not hold a record of the amount of time spent.

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

Reasons for not providing information

The Scottish Government does not have the information:

Section 17(1) of FOISA (information not held) requires the Scottish Government to notify you if it does not have the information you requested. The reasons for this are explained in the relevant questions it has been used.

An exemption applies:

An exemption under section 38(1) (b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, ie Names and contact details of individual and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

Information not provided:

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(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

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