Scottish Government marketing and advertising costs: FOI Review

Information requested

Further to my letter of 23 February 2021, I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for how much has the Scottish Government spent on NHS Scotland press and TV advertising during the lockdown restrictions.

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed, with modifications.

Response

The information provided covered the two time periods that are defined as when Scotland was in lockdown. While restrictions have continued throughout the time period of the coronavirus pandemic, the term lockdown, as used in the original request, relates to specific dates outlined by the First Minister for when Scotland has entered or has left lockdown.

However, upon clarification of the request in your email from the 17 February 2021, here are details on the spend on TV and press advertising from across all three time periods and the total spend from 24 March 2020 to the 27 January 2021.

	24/03/20- 29/05/20	30/05/20- 04/01/21	05/01/21- 27/01/21	Total
TV	£1,369,944	£4,810,201	£512,884	£6,693,029
Press	£775,061	£1,878,479	£130,361	£2,783,901
Total	£2,145,005	£6,688,680	£643,245	£9,476,930

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.