Information regarding travelling show people fund run by Cora foundation: FOI release

Information requested

Can you give me a list of who received the traveling show people fund run by the Cora foundation and what was the criteria needed to be awarded this fund.

What roll did the showmens guild have in deciding the format for who would receive the fund.

What was the roll of the showmens guild in vetting applicants and did the showmens guild have any part in applicants being refused the fund.

What happened to the people who appealed being turned down for the fund and has any thing been done with there appeals or have they been contacted regarding there appeal.

How did the government confirm applicants where traveling showpeople who at the showmens guild took part in the vetting process.

Response

While our aim is to respond to your request as best we can, in this instance we cannot provide some of the information you have requested as a statutory exemption under FOISA applies.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names of individuals who received the travelling show people fund, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

The Scottish Government can confirm that £1,477,500 was paid to 148 successful applicants. Further information regarding who received the travelling show people fund can be found in the Annex. Certain information has been redacted under a section of FOISA.

This fund was administered on behalf of the Scottish Government by the Corra Foundation. This included assessing applications and managing appeals.

The following criteria were agreed and set out in the Grant Offer Letter to the Corra Foundation:

“The Travelling Showpeople Fund will offer one-off grants of £10,000 to support travelling show people in Scotland whose work and income has been negatively affected by COVID-19. The Fund is open to travelling show people who have a registered address in Scotland and who normally earn at least 50% of their annual income through their work attending established funfairs. To be eligible for a grant you must meet all of the following criteria:

• Operating as a travelling show person is your primary source of income.
• Are a current operating member of a recognised trade body (e.g. Scottish Showmen’s Guild).
• Can list at least five funfairs in Scotland you have attended in the last two years.
• Planning to be operational in 2020.”

The Showmen’s Guild were asked by the Scottish Government to assist in designing the fund. Seeking the advice of trade bodies who have direct knowledge of the sector has been a feature of the design of Covid-19 support funds across a range of sectors to ensure that schemes were fit for purpose. The criteria provided to the Corra Foundation were therefore agreed by Scottish Government in association with the Scottish Showmen’s Guild.

Applications were assessed against the above criteria. As with all funds during the Pandemic, a level of flexibility was applied to ensure as many eligible applicants as possible could access funding. This meant that a range of evidence may have been accepted and fully assessed by the Corra Foundation. It was necessary however to balance this against due diligence and ensure public resource was not mismanaged. Part of the evidence require included providing evidence that an applicant was a current, operating member of a recognised trade body.

All appeals were handled by the Corra foundation hence Scottish Government officials do not hold the information. As such, we would like to advise under section 17 of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold 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.

FOI202100245802 - Annex

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7 page PDF

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