Cost break down of Eid Celebrations at Edinburgh Castle: FOI release

Information requested

1. How much money did the Scottish Government pay towards the Eid Mubarak celebration at Edinburgh Castle attended by Humza Yousaf in April, and a full breakdown of costs?

2. Could you supply all correspondence held by the Scottish Government, including all sent/received and internal, briefing notes, minutes/notes from meetings, about the Eid Mubarak celebration at Edinburgh Castle, mentioned about, between December 1 2023 and the date of this FOI?

3. Could you supply all correspondence held by the Scottish Government, including all sent/received and internal, briefing notes, minutes/notes from meetings, about Peter Murrell being charged, from between April 1 2024 and the date of this FOI? 

4. Could you supply all briefing notes prepared for ministers about Peter Murrell being charged, frombetween April 1 2024 and the date of this FOI?

Response

In relation to your first request, the Scottish Government pay towards the Eid Mubarak celebration at  Edinburgh Castle attended by Humza Yousaf in April a total of £9,985.

A breakdown of the costs:

Category	Total Cost
Catering	£7,137
Entertainment	£820
AV	£903
Transport	£1,125

In relation to your second request, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600.

The reason for this is that, because your request is wide ranging, asking about any correspondence held by the Scottish Government, including all sent/received and internal, briefing notes, minutes/notes from meetings, about the Eid Mubarak celebration at Edinburgh Castle, mentioned about, between December 1 2023 and the date of this FOI. A large amount of information has been found that may be within scope.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600.

You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

In relation to your third and fourth request, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. We do not hold the information requested as the Permanent Secretary was not made aware of Police Scotland’s decision in advance of the public announcement.

Having conducted appropriate and proportionate searches for information in line with your requests, the Scottish Government holds no recorded information within the scope of your request.

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.