Details of hotel accommodation for Ukrainians: FOI release

Information requested

Details of hotel accommodation for Ukrainians, including total costs by year, costs of vacant rooms by year, and the companies to whom this was paid.

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.

Year	Hotel Costs
22-23	£144,371,803.85
23-24	£108,869,408.86
24-25	£39,433,517.47
25-26	£1,224,630.84
Total	£293,899,361.02

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 Scottish Government does not hold data on which specific rooms are vacant at any given time and so cannot provide an overall breakdown of the costs of vacant rooms. Information on total numbers of unoccupied rooms is available in the regular statistical updates previously published by the Scottish Government. Ukraine: analysis and statistics -gov.scot

The vast majority of this money was paid to our travel contractors Corporate Travel Management, who procure accommodation and contract with individual hotels and accommodation providers on our behalf. In the early stages of the Ukraine response, when daily arrival numbers were high and demand was stretching capacity, some additional contingency accommodation was procured on a short term basis directly by Scottish Government officials through electronic procurement cards. Details of many of these transactions can be found at Government spend over £500: monthly reports - gov.scot in the reports between June and October 2022.

An exemption(s) under section 35(1)(a) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. The Scottish Government does not routinely disclose the specific hotels or accommodation providers where Ukrainian displaced people are or have been housed, due to the potential risks should this become public knowledge. As such, we are not disclosing the specific accommodation booked via the electronic procurement cards.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because of the desire to know how public money has been spent. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in ensuring displaced people and/or hotel staff are not subject to harassment or intimidation.

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.