Loan from the sale of Lundin Links Hotel: FOI release

Information requested

Information in relation to the Lundin Links Hotel site:

1. Now that the site has been sold, has the loan from the Scottish Government been repaid? If so, has it been repaid in full?

2. How much did the loan from the Scottish Government cost the taxpayer?

Response

The answer to your first question is the Scottish Government received £381,699.70 towards the repayment of the loan from the sale of Lundin Links. The original loan amount of £850,000 has not been fully repaid and £347,230.30 remains outstanding. The liquidation process continues.

In response to your second question while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because the costs beyond the loan figure noted above are not held for individual loans provided under the SME Liquidity Loan Fund. This would include, for example administration costs such as resourcing costs for officials monitoring and administering all aspects regarding the repayment of the loans, and associated issues. Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information in order to respond to requests. We therefore consider this, under Section 17(1) of FOISA to be information not held.

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

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.