Scottish Government funding to Stonewall UK: FOI Review

Information requested

Original request: 202500459908

From the published accounts of Stonewall UK for year ended 31st March 2024, the following entries appear under the heading ‘income from charitable activities’ on pages 32 and 33:

• Scottish Government £ 106,505
• NHS Scotland £ 38,878
• Scottish Government £101,613

No further information on what the amounts were awarded for or what Stonewall UK had done with them, is available from the published accounts.

In this context and that of the Freedom of Information Act, I write to invite Scottish Government to explain:

1. What the basis of each of the 3 amounts awarded was for, including measurable outcomes and, where relevant, staff to be employed in pursuit of these outcomes

2. Were each of the 3 amounts part of single year awards or multiple year awards

3. Where I can find a report or reports from Scottish Government which sets out the outcomes achieved from making these funding decisions

Response

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for:

“From the published accounts of Stonewall UK for year ended 31st March 2024, the following entries appear under the heading ‘income from charitable activities’ on pages 32 and 33:

• Scottish Government £ 106,505
• NHS Scotland £ 38,878
• Scottish Government £101,613

No further information on what the amounts were awarded for or what Stonewall UK had done with them, is available from the published accounts. In this context and that of the Freedom of Information Act, I write to invite Scottish Government to explain:

1. What the basis of each of the 3 amounts awarded was for, including measurable outcomes and, where relevant, staff to be employed in pursuit of these outcomes

2. Were each of the 3 amounts part of single year awards or multiple year awards

3. Where I can find a report or reports from Scottish Government which sets out the outcomes

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed with some modifications. This decisions should be understood in the context that FOI provides a right to recorded information held by an authority. Public authorities are not required to create information in order to answer a request.

With regards to question 1, I can confirm that the grant offer letters for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 financial years to Stonewall for funding through the Equality and Human Rights Fund (EHRF) is the relevant information we hold regarding what those specific funding amounts were for and the intended outcomes.

The grant offer letters were published on gov.scot as part of previous FOI releases. See links below:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202400398318/ 
https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202400422244/

As a result section 25(1) of FOISA applies. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

We do not hold information on staff to be employed to deliver the intended outcomes. As such, I hereby provide you with formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

In respect of question 2, the information provided did not make wholly explicit whether payments were part of multi-year funding or single year funding. For clarity, the Equality and Human Rights Fund is a multi-year funding arrangement. Both of the relevant Scottish Government payments referred to in the original response (£106,505 grant payment for the period April 2023 to March 2024 financial year and £101,613 grant payment for the period April 2022 to March 2023) were made as part of the Equality and Human Rights Fund.

With regards to question 3, as stated in the original response, Stonewall Scotland provide reporting information through our funding partner Inspiring Scotland which updates on their outputs every six months. This is synthesised into an overall six month report on the overall Equality and Human Rights Fund and all of the organisation it funds. The Scottish Government does not produce reports itself on either the Equality and Human Rights Fund as a whole or any individual organisations receiving that grant funding.

The reports on Equality and Human Rights Fund reports are available on the Inspiring Scotland website:

https://inspiringscotland.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Final-Apr-Sept22_EHR-Progress-Report-2.pdf 

https://inspiringscotland.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Oct-22-March-23_EHR-Progress-Reportfinal-for-publication.pdf 

https://inspiringscotland.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Equality-and-Human-Rights-Report-4-April-September-2023-FINAL.pdf 

https://inspiringscotland.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Oct-23-Mar-24_EHR-Progress-Report-.pdf 

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Finally, I would like to apologise for the drafting error in which the date of your request was not referred to in the response. I can assure you we treat freedom of information requests and other public correspondence with care and deliberation. However, given the large volume of correspondence that is responded to, human errors do occur from time to time. I apologise that the quality of the initial response to you did not meet our usual standards.

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.