Information relating to Voted Loans: EIR release

Information requested

Information in relation to the Voted Loans and their repayment, in particular but not confined to Ships 801/802, Hamnavoe, Hjalthand, Hrossey, Hildasay, and Helliar.

Specifically:

1. What total amount of Voted Loans was outstanding in 2018, 2019, and 2020?
2. What loans are still unpaid and for what vessels?
3. When is each loan expected to be paid in full?
4. What interest rates apply and are the rates firm or fixed and if so, fixed to what?
5. Referring to ‘Scottish Transport Statistics’, are the loans paid out of the amounts given under the ’Subsidy’ columns? If not where can the amounts and repayments be found? If so is it accurate to find the true level of the Operating Subsidy rather than the funding arrangements by subtracting the outstanding Voted Loan amounts from the ’Subsidy’?
6. What are the predicted amounts of outstanding loans for 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025?
7. What is the likely Voted Loan for the New Islay Ferry, the interest rate, and the expected repayment period?
8. For each loan, what interest accrued and how was it funded and repaid?

Response

As all of the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

In response to your request above, please refer to Annex A which sets out our response.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested which relates to:

Question 1 -  What total amount of Voted Loans was outstanding in 2018, 2019, and 2020?

We have provided the figures in the annex but you should note that vessels 801/802 do not appear under any Voted Loan activity as neither vessel is yet in service and separate funding arrangements currently apply. 

Question 7 -  What is the likely Voted Loan for the New Islay Ferry, the interest rate, and the expected repayment period?

At present as the Islay vessel project is currently at the Procurement Stage, currently we do not have an exact price for this, neither will we know the interest rate for the various instalments until this process is concluded. However, the standard repayment term for this type of activity is normally 20 years or more and will be based on the estimated cost of the vessel of around £50m

For future reference all this information can be found within the Scottish Government annual accounts published for every financial year. The most up to date version for the last financial year ending March 2021 will be published in due course.

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 - 202100227322 - Annex A

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