Charities and Companies established with statutory roles and functions: FOI release

Information requested

1. All charities and companies that have been conferred with statutory functions by the Scottish Government. Please provide a full list of the charities and companies that carry out statutory functions and the piece of legislation that confers this power/role.

2. All charities and companies that carry out non-statutory functions on behalf of the Scottish Government. Please provide a full list of the charities and companies that carry out such functions and state what these functions are.

3. All funds that are administered by charities and companies on behalf of the Scottish Government or any of its public bodies. Please provide a full list of public funds that are funded by the Scottish Government but administered by a company or charity in 2023 24 and 2024-25 as well as the size of these funds.

For an example of a fund administered by a company, see the Recycling Improvement Fund which was administered by Zero Waste Scotland (prior to it becoming a public body): https://www.gov.scot/news/gbp-70-million-fund-to-improve-recycling/ 

Response

As you have asked three questions, I will address each in turn.

Question 1
When reviewing your request, we considered both sentences within this question held different interpretations. The first sentence has a narrower scope as it refers to statutory functions conferred by Scottish Government. The Scottish Parliament confers statutory functions through the legislative process, rather than the Scottish Government. However, there are circumstances where statutory functions have been conferred by the Scottish Government/Scottish Ministers. Whereas the second sentence is broader in scope as it refers to all charities and companies that carry out statutory functions.

We have interpreted your request on the basis of the broader scope. As such, I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested. This excel file contains, where it has been possible to obtain the relevant information, a list of charities and companies established by statute (with statutory functions), and the relevant piece of legislation that confers that power/role. 

Question 2
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the information you have requested because an exemption under section 12(1) - Complying will exceed the upper cost limit - applies. The reason why that exemption applies is explained below.

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 to locate and retrieve that information we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government. It may help if I explain that we file our information according to the subject matter. Under Section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, you could specify the subject matter you are interested in or restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted. 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.

Question 3
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the information you have requested because an exemption under section 12(1) - Complying will exceed the upper cost limit - applies. The reason why that exemption applies is explained below.

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 to locate and retrieve that information we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government. It may help if I explain that we file our information according to the subject matter. Under Section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, you could specify the subject matter you are interested in or restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted. 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.

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.

FOI 202500458987 - Information Released - Annex

File type

Excel document

File size

16.3 kB