Lord-Lieutenants cost to the Scottish Government: FOI release
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Information requested
1. The total annual cost to the Scottish Government associated with Lord-Lieutenants in Scotland for each of the last three financial years (or the most recent years available).
2. If held, please provide a breakdown of these costs by individual Lord-Lieutenancy area). If no funding is provided to support Lord-Lieutenants/this information is not held by you, please explicitly confirm this in your response. In that case, I would also appreciate directions to a more appropriate source of this information, if it exists.
Response
Lord-Lieutenants are His Majesty The King’s representative in the Lieutenancies. Aside from royal duties, Lord-Lieutenants generally promote and encourage voluntary and charitable organisations and take an interest in the business, urban and rural and social life of the area they serve. Certain duties are expected of Lord-Lieutenants including: arranging visits by Members of the Royal Family and escorting Royal visitors; representing The King, including presenting certain honours, medals and awards; encouraging and assessing honours nominations; and liaising with local units of the armed forces and their associated reserve and cadet forces. Although Lord-Lieutenants give their time to the office voluntarily and are not salaried, they may claim expenses for costs arising from the discharge of their duties.
The attached spreadsheet sets out Lord-Lieutenant expenditure for the last three financial years. In Scotland, some Lord-Lieutenants receive non-financial support from their Local Authorities. The system varies from Lieutenancy to Lieutenancy and across Local Authority areas i.e. some Local Authorities are able to assist the local Lieutenancy with provision of limited secretarial support. Others are not in a position to be able to do so.
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG