Expenditure of new domestic fire alarm regulation: FOI release

Information requested

1. Cost of the government / parliament creating the legislation.

2. Expenses / budget for government funded / subsidised installations.

3. Cost of advertising to date.

4. Cost of planned advertising campaign(s).

5. Expected cost to local authorities for enforcement of the new regulations.

6. Any other relevant expenses (or planned / expected expenses).

Response

In relation to the expenses/budget for government funded installations, the Scottish Government has provided £0.5 million additional funding for Care and Repair Scotland to provide help installing alarms for older and disabled people, and £1.0 million to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to provide alarms for owners who are considered most vulnerable to the risk of fire.

In relation to the costs of advertising, committed costs of the advertising to date total £435,162.73 to reach 95.2% of all adults across Scotland (4,395,000 people) with 84.8% of those seeing the campaign at least 3 times with this vital public information message. This includes the booking of media space for the length of the campaign, which is planned to end on 15 September 2021.

In relation to the cost to local authorities for enforcement, no additional funding has been allocated to local authorities for enforcement.

In relation to other relevant expenses, there are no other relevant expenses.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.

In relation to the cost of creating the legislation, this work is carried out as part of the normal business of government and no separate record of costs relating to the creation of this legislation are available.

In relation to the total costs of the advertising campaign, following evaluation of the campaign, there may be a need to run another burst of activity although nothing has been committed at this stage. Final campaign budgets cannot be confirmed until full financial reconciliation has taken place following the end of the financial year.

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

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