Short term let consultation costs: FOI release

Information requested

The existing and projected costs of the Scottish Government's consultations on proposed short-term letting restrictions, specifically, those launched in April 2019, September 2020, and June 2021, as well as the actual and projected costs of the parliamentary processes following the 2020 and 2021 consultation.

Response

I enclose most of the information you requested.

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.

	Existing	Projected
2019 consultation	£96,945.16	n/a
2020 consultation & parliamentary process	£4,342.06	n/a
2021 consultation & parliamentary process	£4,082.42	£2,321
Total (existing and projected)		£107,690.64

1. The costs set out above include existing and projected costs for:

Consultation

• Publication of consultation papers;
• Publication of consultation analysis reports;
• External analysis costs (for 2019 consultation only);
• Publication of independent research;
• Independent research costs;
• Costs associated with consultation events, including venue hire and travel costs;
• Publication of draft planning and licensing guidance;

Parliamentary process

• SSI laying costs for the Control Area Regulations (Dec 2020) and Licensing Order (Dec 2020 and Nov 2021) legislation, and associated impact assessments.

2. You can find the consultation papers, reports, research and information here: Short-term lets: regulation information - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

3. The costs set out above do not include Scottish Government staff costs. It may help if I explain that we do not keep a record of time allocated to particular tasks. The 2019, 2020 and 2021 consultation processes were largely developed and supported by officials in the core short-term lets policy team (within More Homes Division). Due to the cross-cutting nature of short-term lets policy, the short-term lets policy team have been supported at various stages by officials from other areas of the Scottish Government, including planning, tourism and local government. The core policy team have been involved in many other elements of work in addition to the consultations, including: responding to correspondence, regular stakeholder engagement, and development of detailed policy proposals. For these reasons, we are unable to provide staff costs associated with the short-term lets consultations.

4. The costs set out in relation to the Parliamentary process cover costs incurred by the Scottish Government to publish legislation, and associated impact assessments, at Legislation.gov.uk. The Scottish Government do not hold any information regarding costs incurred by the Scottish Parliament in relation to the Parliamentary process. However, you may wish to contact foi.officer@parliament.scot 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.