Costs for protecting Scotland’s democracy meeting: FOI release

Information requested

1. All documentation held by the Scottish Government, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), briefings, minutes/notes from meetings and analysis, about the upcoming Contribution to international development report, from the last three months.

2. The full costs, plus a breakdown of them, of the protecting Scotland’s democracy meeting held on April 23.

Response

1. In response to your first request, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

In line with our commitments on transparency and accountability, the last Scottish Government Contribution to International Development Report was published on 17 June 2024 (see Contribution to international development: report 2021 to 2023 - gov.scot). We are currently considering how we report Official Development Assistance (ODA) in future. Scottish Government ODA is separately, in any case, reported to the UKG who then include that data within their annual “Statistics on International Development” webpages (see Statistics on International Development - GOV.UK).

As such, we hereby provide you with formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

2. In response to your second request, we can confirm the costs (incl VAT) in relation to the meeting on 23 April 2025 on protecting Scotland’s democracy were £10,213.98, broken down as follows:

• Room Hire costs of £4,080
• Catering costs of £2,028
• Materials cost for AV equipment and technical support of £4,014.36
• Associated handling costs of £91.62

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.