Details of official travel from Glasgow to Dundee to set-up Social Security office: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/03091
Date received:19 October 2018
Date responded: 15 November 2018

 

 

You asked for details of the travel expenditure incurred by staff from the Social Security Directorate travelling between Glasgow and Dundee since April 2018 to the date of your request.  In particular you requested information on train, bus, personal mileage and the car parking costs incurred by staff travelling or commuting between the two cities as part of the creation and occupation of the new headquarters in Dundee.

You also asked for details of any hire cars used during this period, including dates, costs, recharges and number of staff using these for trips between Glasgow and Dundee or Dundee to Glasgow; hotel costs incurred by staff during the above dates in either Dundee or Glasgow; a copy of our Travel Policy for staff and details of carbon targets that our organisation is working to.

 

 

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in Annex 1.  Please see Annex 2 for further details regarding the information that we are unable to provide.

Some of the information you have requested is available from www.gov.scot/publications, in particular The Scottish Government’s Travel Strategy and Carbon Management Plan (CMP). 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.

 

 

The Scottish Government does not have the information.

The Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have asked for because we do not hold information regarding the collection, delivery and drop off locations for hire cars. The Scottish Government is only able to provide accommodation and rail travel costs for the period 01/04/2018 – 30/09/2018 due to the relevant reports being produces one month in arrears.

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

An exemption applies.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the costs for bus, personal mileage and car parking costs would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The work required would involve individually assessing over 250 claims. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.