Climate funding received from the UK Government: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
1. How much climate funding Scottish Government receives from the UK, if it does indeed receive such funding?
2. If Scotland does not receive a specific allocation for anything climate related, where does Scotland get its funding for such climate related projects?
3. Who decides who or what company receives such funding?
4. A list of all who have received such funding, how much and what it was used for from 2020-2025.
5. Does this include giving climate related funding to foreign nations?
6. How much climate aid/funding has increased by amount and percentage from 2019-2024-25?
Response
As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’, for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.
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, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.
1. Funding from the UK Government to the Scottish Government is determined by the Barnett-based block grant as set out in the statement of funding policy. It does not specify how much is allocated for climate funding. The Scottish Government determines the allocation of funding (whether from the block grant from the UK Government or from other sources of revenue such as devolved areas of tax) across the devolved responsibilities of the Scottish Parliament.
2. Along with the Barnett Block Grant funding, the Scottish Government budget is comprised of taxes raised in Scotland and limited borrowing powers. It is the responsibility of the Scottish Government to allocate budget spending. There is no set allocation for climate project spending.
3. Funding awarded by the Scottish Government will usually be subject to an application process. Scottish Government officials will assess each application, or bid, against a metric previously agreed upon for each individual fund and will provide a shortlist to Ministers to make the final allocation decision(s). In some cases, funds will be awarded to external delivery partners, who will utilise their own allocation process.
4. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under the exception at regulation 10(4)(b) of the EIRs a public authority may refuse a request for information if it is ‘manifestly unreasonable’. The Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on the regulation 10(4)(b) exception at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Law/EIRs/EIRsExceptions.aspx says that there may, “be instances where it is appropriate for the Commissioner to consider the proportionality of the burden on the public authority in terms of the costs and resources involved in dealing with a request when considering the application of this exception.”
In this case, the exemption applies to your request for details of ‘what (funding) was used for. We have provided information on recipients of funding, how much funding was received, and where the information was available and accessible, details of how funds were spent. Considering the number of ‘climate related projects’, identified, providing details of each project would require a vast amount of resources and would incur a large cost. We have assessed that, even with a 20-day extension, the request would still be unmanageable due to the volume of returns. We have provided details of projects where possible. For these reasons, we consider that your request is manifestly unreasonable and so we are refusing it under regulation 10(4)(b).
As the exception is conditional, we have applied the ‘public interest test’. This means we have, in all the circumstances of this case, considered if the public interest in disclosing information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about climate related projects funded by the Scottish Government this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring the efficient and effective use of public resources by not incurring excessive costs when complying with information requests.
You may however wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order to make it manageable specifying which funding stream(s) or business area(s) you are interested in or, narrowing the timeframe. It could also be helpful to avoid the use of vague terms such as ‘climate related’. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’, on their website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx .
An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. This exception applies to one piece of information, which references the personal details of a third party.
This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because this references a payment made by the Scottish Government. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in maintaining the privacy of private citizen’s personal details.
For the purposes of this request, we have defined ‘’climate related projects’ as ‘projects funded by the Scottish Government with the aim of furthering Scotland’s journey to net zero, including our commitment to international climate justice’.
The attached document provides details of ‘climate related projects’ that have been funded by the Scottish Government from 2020-2025.
Some of the information you have requested is available on the Scottish Government website. Details can be found in the table below.
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Climate Assembly |
Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland costs and Ministerial Pa FOI release - gov.scot |
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Climate Engagement Fund |
Climate Challenge Fund: projects funded 2020 to 2022 gov.scot |
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Healthy Islands Fund |
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Islands Communities Fund (ICF) |
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Islands programme |
Supporting Scotland’s islands - gov.scot Investing in Scotland's islands - gov.scot |
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The Scottish Government publishes paid-for media marketing spend annually.This includes all climate relate media marketing activity |
5. Yes
6. Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because they were not obligated to produce data detailing climate aid/funding in 2019. As of Budget 2024/25, a dedicated climate annex has been published along side the Budget providing total climate positive spend. This is available on the Scottish Government website
This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about how spending on climate aid/funding has increased clearly, we cannot provide information which we do not hold.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG