LGBT History Month funding: FOI release

Information requested

You asked us to:

1. Please outline the value of Scottish Government funding provided to any organisation to support LGBT History Month, broken down by funding period, for the past 5 years.

2. Please outline which Directorate has responsibility for funding LGBT History Month activity and the process by which the funds are both tendered and allocated.

3. Please confirm the funding objectives and outcomes for the most recent funding allocation and how the awarded organisation met these objectives and outcomes in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 year.

Response

1. The Scottish Government funds LGBT Youth Scotland; through the Equality Budget, to address discrimination, engage with LGBTI young people and build the capacity of professional and public bodies. As part of their application submitted for the funding round, LGBT Youth Scotland set out the activity they intended to pursue. This includes policy and influencing work, engaging with schools and education authorities and the co-ordination of LGBT History Month.

Some of the information regarding funding amounts is available in the public domain, as follows:

• 2017-20 funding https://www.gov.scot/publications/equality-national-intermediary-bodies-funding-2017-2020/
• 2016-17 funding https://www.gov.scot/publications/equality-funding-2016-2017/

For 2015-16, LGBT Youth Scotland received 260K in funding. For 2012-15, LGBT Youth Scotland received £780,034 in funding.

2. The Scottish Government’s Equality Unit, within the Directorate for Local Government and Communities is responsible for the management of Equality Budget Funding. Officials meet with Impact Funding Partners to evaluate the merit of each application against the criteria set out within the fund application. A final decision is made by Scottish Ministers.

3. The expected outcomes of the Grant are:

• A reduction in discrimination against people who share protected characteristics
• Reduced levels of hate crime
• Increased community participation, engagement and community cohesion
• Addressing imbalances in representation in all aspects and levels of public life

The 2017/20 application for the organisation is attached and contains further information on fund outcomes and the activities of LGBT Youth Scotland. However, some of the information contained within the document is withheld under Section 38(1)(b) of FOISA as it contains personal details about a third party.

Reasons for not providing information - Annex
An exemption applies

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, ie names/contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. 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.

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FOI-19-01260 - Information Released

File type

66 page PDF

File size

2.9 MB