Government Car Service (GCS) and Ministerial personal car travel expense statistics: FOI release

Information requested

The amount the Scottish Government spent on the Government Car Service in each year from 2010/11 to 2021/22 (to the date of this request).

Number of cars in the Scottish Government, Government Car Service in each year from 2010/11 to 2021/22 (to the date of this request).

The number of FTE staff working in the Scottish Government, Government Car Service in each year from 2010/11 to 2021/22 (to the date of this request).

The amount spent by the Scottish Government on ministerial taxi journeys in each year from 2010/11 to 2021/22 (to the date of this request).

The amount spent by the Scottish Government on expenses for ministers for travel in their own cars while on Scottish Government business in each year from 2010/11 to 2021/22 (to the date of this request).

Response

We are able to provide some of the information, however exemptions apply to other aspects of your request.

Government Car Service (GCS) total cost of service, number of staff employed, and number of vehicles used.

Year	Total cost of service (1)	Number of cars (2)	Total number of staff (3)
2010/11	£974,678	24	21
2011/12	£1,074,714	28	21
2012/13	£1,204,864	35	21
2013/14	£1,156,208	31	21
2014/15	£1,184,851	28	21
2015/16	£1,145,521	25	21
2016/17	£1,092,375	25	21
2017/18	£1,177,398	27	21
2018/19	£1,323,131	33	21
2019/20	£1,344,978	41	25
2020/21	£903,002	41	25
2021/22	£599,148 (4)	28	23

Notes
1. Total costs include staff salaries, employer’s contributions, fuel, vehicle maintenance, private hire and travel and subsistence.
2. The number of vehicles fluctuates as and when vehicles are procured and disposed of.
3. Includes drivers and office staff.
4. Total cost up until end of October 2021.Complete figures from 01 to 15 November 2021 are not currently available.

Ministerial personal car travel expenses April 12 to July 18.

Year	Total cost
2012/13	£26.55
2013/14	£7,036.45
2014/15	£5,321.15
2015/16	£2,230.53
2016/17	£938.25
2017/18	£132.30
2018/19 (1)	Nil

Notes
1. Period covered April – July 18.

Ministerial personal car travel expense records prior to 2012/13 have been routinely destroyed, in accordance to our records management practice, before the date of your request.

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

Ministerial personal car travel expenses from July 2018 to April 2021 and taxi costs from April 10 to April 21, can be accessed via the following links:

Ministerial Travel (webarchive.org.uk)

Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

This is a formal notice under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.

If, however, you are unable to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Ministerial travel details, including taxi and personal car expenses are routinely and proactively published and information covering May to October 2021 will be published in the next 12 weeks.

You will be able to find that information via the second link above.

This is a formal notice under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. This exemption allows public authorities to refuse to disclose information if they already plan to publish it within the next 12 weeks.

Our application of this exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information now outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have concluded that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, since providing this information at this point, given that it will shortly be published, would not be a responsible use of public resources and therefore not be in the public interest.

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.