Social media independence spend: FOI release

Information requested

1. How much money has the Scottish Government spent on creating social media videos about independence? A breakdown of these figures.

2. How many videos has the Scottish Government created about independence in 2021 and 2022 and a list of these videos?

3. Who created the videos and how many people were involved in creating them? Were they civil servants and did a specialist team get hired?

4. How many more independence videos is the Scottish Government planning to create in the next two years?

Response

1. How much money has the Scottish Government spent on creating social media videos about independence? A breakdown of these figures.

1. There has been no spend on social media creation or promotion in relation to independence. All social media content in relation to independence has been created in-house by Scottish Government staff.

2. How many videos has the Scottish Government created about independence in 2021 and 2022 and a list of these videos?

2. 12 videos in total have been created about independence in 2021 and 2022.

There have been eight video animations created about the Scottish Government’s Building a New Scotland prospectus series between 1 January 2021 and 2 November 2022:

- Constitution papers introduction video – 14 June 2022
- Independence in the modern world (paper 1) – 14 June 2022
- Graph video 4 (poverty rates) – 15 June 2022
- Graph video 1 (GDP per capita) – 16 June 2022
- Graph video 2 (productivity) – 16 June 2022
- Graph video 3 (income inequality) – 16 June 2022
- Renewing democracy through independence (paper 2) – 14 July 2022
- A stronger economy with independence (paper 3) – Oct 17 2022

Three videos are clips of a Scottish Government press conference held to launch papers in the Building a New Scotland series:

- First Minister’s press conference from Bute House – paper 3 - Oct 17 2022
- Scottish Government Press Conference – Renewing democracy through independence – paper 2 – 14 July 2022
- Scottish Government Press Conference – Building a New Scotland – paper 1 – 14 June 2022

One video is of the First Minister talking about the Building a New Scotland series:

- What would independence mean for the Scottish economy – paper 3 piece to camera – Oct 18 2022

All videos are publicly available on the Scottish Government social media channels:

https://twitter.com/scotgov
https://www.facebook.com/TheScottishGovernment/
https://www.instagram.com/scotgov/

3. Who created the videos and how many people were involved in creating them? Were they civil servants and did a specialist team get hired?

3. As noted in response to question one, all videos were created in-house by Scottish Government staff. No specialist teams have been hired.

I am unable to provide you with a figure for the total number of staff involved in the creation of the videos because in line with usual practice, details of individual tasks carried out by civil servants, are not routinely recorded because there is no business need to do this. This is a formal notice under Section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

4. How many more independence videos is the Scottish Government planning to create in the next two years?

4. This is a formal notice under Section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. At this point it is not possible for us to say how many videos we plan to create in the next two years on independence. The Scottish Government is committed to providing people with the information they need, ahead of any referendum, to make a choice about Scotland’s future. Due to its ability to effectively reach large numbers of the population with crucial public information, social media content, including video, will play a part in this going forward.

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.