First Minister Bute House maintenance allowance: FOI release

Information requested

Does the First Minister of Scotland receive an allowance for costs associated with maintaining and furnishing her official residence – Bute House? If yes:

• How much is that allowance? And is it an annual payment?
• Please can I receive a breakdown of what has been spent from that budget, from November 20th 2014 to the present day.

Response

Bute House is owned by the National Trust for Scotland and under the terms of the lease, Scottish Government is liable for all repairs and maintenance.

The First Minister does not receive an allowance for the maintenance and furnishing of Bute House. Funding comes from the annual corporate resource budget, allocated to critical repairs.

Bute House is central to the category A listed buildings to the north side of Charlotte Square, Edinburgh. Charlotte Square features in James Craig's 1776 masterplan for the New Town of Edinburgh with designs for the facades by Robert Adam. The square was constructed between 1793 and 1805 and is now part of a World Heritage Site.

The conservation and care of Bute House is delivered through partnership and collaboration between the Scottish Government, Historic Environment Scotland (HES), National Galleries of Scotland, and National Trust for Scotland (NTS). These stakeholders are the current custodians of Bute House and all stand ready to deal with scheduled, and unscheduled, repairs which are not uncommon for buildings of this age.

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.