Advisory Group on Economic Recovery: FOI review

Information requested

Your request, reference 202100223479
1. All the incurred costs by the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery, ranging from the council’s initiation to the present date with a full breakdown of those costs.

2. A full membership list for any members of AGER between its initiation and the present date.

3. A list of all engagement with Scottish Ministers and Cabinet Secretaries between its initiation and the present date.

Your review requested, reference 202100230301
I recently submitted a Freedom of Information Request with the reference number 202100223479 regarding the Advisory Group for Economic Recovery. In that response I was quoted the figure of £1,432.68 as the total cost of the group’s work. In my request, I asked for a breakdown of that figure which was not forthcoming. Would I be able to ask what that money was spent on (printing, publication and launch costs etc.)?

I would also like to ask how much civil service time was spent by the civil service covering the group’s meetings?

Response

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

The original response was correct to say that the only costs incurred by the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery related to publishing. However, a more detailed breakdown of these costs could have been provided, and I have provided this in the table below.

Item	Cost
Artwork	£350.10
Project Management	£66.18
Publishing Services	£41.72
Web Conversion	£738.28
Web Publishing	£236.40
Totals	£1,432.68

Further to your request regarding civil service time spent covering the group's meetings, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we cannot do so. The reason for this is that, in line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, including the number of hours spent on them, are not recorded because there is no business need to do this.

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

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.