Information relating to the purchasing of copies of the newspaper The National: FOI release

Information requested

This is an information request relating to purchasing of newspaper The National. Please include the information broken down by the following financial years: 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22:

• Expenditure on subscriptions to The National, for example a yearly or a monthly subscription. Please make clear the dates that the subscription was held between and the total cost of the subscription. Please make clear if a subscription is ongoing.
• Please include digital and print subscriptions
• Expenditure on individual copies of The National. Please make clear the number of copies purchased and the total expenditure

Response

I have attached details of the spend the Scottish Government Library has managed for the Scottish Government (including Transport Scotland) on The National newspaper for financial years 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22. This includes spend by month and year and the number of print subscriptions this equates to by month. The Library managed no digital subscriptions.

Please note the Library managed no subscriptions for Transport Scotland for 2020/21 and 2021/22.

Please also note that not all orders are for full annual subscriptions. As with all newspapers, copies of individual issues may be requested on an ad-hoc basis as necessary.

The attachment does not include details of any other spend on The National that individuals in the Scottish Government or Transport Scotland may have arranged themselves. We do not have access to that information.

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.