Capital spend on education facilities: FOI release

Information requested

"In the last ten whole financial years (up to 2020-21), the total value of all capital investment which the Scottish Government has committed and spent on:

1. The Schools Estate nationally (nursery, primary, secondary provision)
2. The College Sector nationally
3. The University Sector nationally

I would also like to know the total floor area (square metres) across each of the three categories.

For the purposes of the response, I would like to see the revenue funded projects, such as PPP or Hub DBFM being reported as their capital equivalent values, ie, a DBFM High School project which saw the construction of a £50m (capital equivalent) school rather than the smaller annual revenue spend being spread over say 25 years through the PPP / DBFM contracts.

Can you please also include capital investment made by Local Authorities or Universities directly through their own means, i.e. prudential borrowing through PWLB etc etc, so there is a clear picture of the totality of capital spend across each of these education sectors in that ten year period.”

Response

Scottish Government Capital Investment:
The Scottish Government has provided local authorities with £476 million of capital over the last four years, which has enabled them to refurbish, re-purpose and extend hundreds of existing nursery settings, as well as providing over 150 new facilities across Scotland. More information can be found on the Scottish Government website - Increasing Free Early Learning And Childcare - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The Scottish Government’s £1.8 billion Scotland’s Schools for the Future programme saw the construction or refurbishment of 117 school projects across Scotland. Through the programme, Scottish Government provide £1.13 billion - with local authorities contributing £665 million - to build 117 new schools. More information can be found on the Scottish Government website - Ten Year School Plan Delivered - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The relevant information for the college and university sectors is included within the attached PDF document.

The Scottish Government publish information in terms of the capital investment of projects, particularly in relation to hub DBFM/PPP projects. This is available at the following link and details the capital investment of each project, including for NPD colleges - NPD/Hub Programme: Unitary Payment Charges - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Total Floor Area:
The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because this is not information that the Scottish Government collects.

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

Local Authorities or Universities Capital Investment:
The Scottish Government’s school estate statistics do hold some information in relation to number of schools built or refurbished (Tables 3.1 and 3.2) which you may find helpful. More information can be found on the Scottish Government website - School Estate Statistics 2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Additionally, some information on capital investment in school buildings made by local authorities is available in the school level dataset in the School Estates Supplementary statistics (available here - www.gov.scot/publications/school-estates-statistics/). However, these figures only include spend on completed refurbishments or new builds with a total value of over £0.5 million for primary schools and £1 million for secondary and special schools. Furthermore, while the total build cost is recorded only the primary source of funding is recorded. This means that some of the funding for projects recorded as funded by LA capital may have come from other sources.

However, the Scottish Government does not hold information on capital investment made by universities directly through their own means.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. However, you may wish to contact universities directly who may be able to help you.

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 - 202100223842 - Information Released - Annex

File type

4 page PDF

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43.0 kB