Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture Tartan Week trip 2023: FOI release

Information requested

The cost of travel, accommodation, meals, security and staff support which will be borne by the taxpayer - with regards to the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture's trip to New York City. This being the trip made commencing the week of April 10 2023, for 'NYC Tartan Week'.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested below.

Annex A: Official support travel costs

Official	Transport	Accommodation costs (converted to GBP)	Total Cost (pp)
Deputy Director	£1,476.00	£846.99	£2,322.99
Policy Official	£586.21	£1,169.44	£1,755.65
Comms Official	£921.41	£935.55	£1,856.96
Policy Official	£862.71	£1,169.44	£2,032.15
Private Secretary	£922.21	£1,169.44	£2,091.65
US Office - Policy Official	N/A	£701.66	£701.66
US Office - Policy Official	£51.67	£1,169.44	£1,221.11
US Office - Policy Official	£151.55	£701.66	£853.21
US Office - Policy Official	£106.94	£701.66	£808.60
US Office - Head of Scottish Government Office	£286.65	£1,169.44	£1,456.09
Total cost	£5,365.35	£9,734.72	£15,100.07

The Scottish Government does not hold some have the information you have asked for because information relating to the subsistence expenses of support officials were not held on the date of your request.

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

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested regarding the travel of the Cabinet Secretary for External Affairs because an exemption under section 27(1) Information intended for future publication of FOISA applies to that information.

This exemption applies as details of ministerial engagements, travel and gifts will be published within the next 12 weeks and will be available when published at the link below. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

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

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because of interest in Ministerial travel. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in minimising the resource implications of the duplication of work.

The Scottish Government does not hold the requested information relating to security costs as there were no security costs associated with Tartan Week 2023. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

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