Business Support Grant Eligibility criteria: FOI release

Information requested

Details of the process employed to determine eligibility criteria for allocation of the Business Support Grant.

Response

The Scottish Government holds some documents that fall within the scope of your request. I have enclosed a copy of those documents that fall within the scope of your request.
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information within those documents because it is personal data of a third party, ie names or contact details of individuals, 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. Some information has also been redacted where the content pertains to information that is not considered within the scope of your request.

Some of the information you have requested is available on the Scottish Government website. The process for determining eligibility was provided in Local Government Finance Circulars as set out below.

Local Government Finance Circular 5/2020 Covid-19 Grant Funding Scheme (superseded)
https://www.gov.scot/publications/local-government-finance-circular-5-2020-covid-19-grant-fundingschemes/

Local Government Finance Circular 8/2020 Covid-19 Grant Funding Scheme (as amended)
https://www.gov.scot/publications/local-government-finance-circular-8-2020-covid-19-grant-fundingschemes-as-amended/

Local Government Finance Circular 9/2020 Covid-19 Grant Funding Scheme Phase 2
https://www.gov.scot/publications/local-government-finance-circular-9-2020-covid-19-grant-fundingscheme-phase-2/

Local Government Finance Circular 11/2020 Covid-19 Grant Funding Scheme Phase 3
https://www.gov.scot/publications/local-government-finance-circular-11-2020-covid-19-grant-fundingscheme-phase-3/

Information related to your request can also be found in the Court of Session opinion on the Petition of John Sharp against Scottish Government:
https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/docs/default-source/cos-general-docs/pdf-docs-foropinions/2020csoh74.pdf?sfvrsn=0

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 websites 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.

FoI-202000070372 - Information released

File type

19 page PDF

File size

800.1 kB