Costs for Special Advisers and Press Officers: FOI release

Information requested

Could you supply the total spend on Scottish Government Special advisers and press officers for the 24/25 financial year, as well as the same totals for the three previous years, and a breakdown per year?

Response

Special Advisers

The table below contains the costs for Special Advisers between April 2021 and March 2025, broken down by financial year.

Year	Total Cost
2021-22	£1,448,553
2022-23	£1,909,843
2023-24	£2,135,775
2024-25	£1,944,887

• Total cost includes employer costs for pension and National Insurance contributions.

Press Officers

Costs for press officers is pro-actively published and available from 2006 to 2023-24 on Communications staff (press officers): costs - gov.scot

Costs for the financial year 2024-25 are not available until the the financial year has ended. Collation of this information is underway and figures will be published on the Scottish Government website within the next 12 weeks.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under section s.27(1) Information Intended for Future publication FOISA applies to that information. The reasons why that exemption applies is because we will be publishing the 2024-25 press officer costs on gov.scot within the next 12 weeks.

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.