Taxpayers money for independence work: FOI release

Information requested

How much of the £20million of taxpayers money has been spent to date plus what is the quote for all the legal work you are commissioning for the supreme court hearing?

Response

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 Resource Spending Review, published on 31 May 2022, included a £20m provisional allocation for the non Scottish Government costs of an independence referendum for the 2023-24 financial year. This is part of the Scottish Government’s future spending plans, and so no money had yet been spent. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

As of 28 June 2022, the Scottish Government has spent £27,193.84 on external counsel advising on the referral to the Supreme Court.

As set out in our response to PQ S6W-09691 (available at S6W-09691 | Scottish Parliament Website), the Scottish Government intends to proactively publish information about the costs of the litigation. Accordingly, an exemption under Section 27 (information intended for future publication) 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. The reasons why this exemption applies are set out in Annex B.

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 202200312521 - Information released

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2 page PDF

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