Scottish Government expenditure on Airbnb: FOI Review

Information requested

In each financial year since and including 2018/19, please provide the total Scottish Government expenditure on Airbnb, including the justification and links to the listings booked, if available.

Response

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for ‘justifications for the booking of [AirBnB] properties and potentially links to those properties in correspondence’. I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed, with modifications. Additional information which was available at the time of your original request has become available on a deeper search of information held.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under sections 25(1) (information otherwise accessible), and Section 38 (personal information)

Section 25(1) (information otherwise accessible)
A small amount of information within the scope of your request consists of a previously released FOISA request. This information is already reasonably accessible to you at https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202200275984/

Section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information)
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, ie names and email addresses 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.

All purchases made for AirBnB accommodation have been made using the Scottish Government electronic Purchasing Card (ePC), details of which have been recorded on and sourced from the Scottish Procurement Information Hub. This formed the first response. The Hub does not provide detail of the justification for expenditure or any links to listings booked but a deeper search of any related information across all platforms found the additional documentation attached.
 

Year	Merchant	Amount	Description
19/20	AIRBNB	£ 2,759.74	Additional information provided
19/20	AIRBNB	£ 159.17	Additional information provided
19/20	AIRBNB	£ 78.52	Additional information provided
19/20	AIRBNB	£ 181.30	Additional information provided
19/20	AIRBNB	£ 180.14	Additional information provided
21/22	AIRBNB	£ 557.81	https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202200275984/

You will note that some of the additional documentation refers to ‘rebates’ which would not have appeared on the Scottish Procurement Information Hub ‘spend’ information. This is likely where the stay was cut short as business was concluded early.

The ePC is an efficient, low cost and transparent way of making payments for goods and services. It is particularly useful for low-value non-recurring expenditure. Card holders are pre-approved to spend up to a transaction limit without seeking approvals or justifications. Any ePC spend over £500 is published on the Scottish Government website on a monthly basis.

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.

FOI 202200275989 - Information released

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23 page PDF

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649.3 kB