Trade and Investment Envoys expenses: FOI release

Information requested

A list of all expenses claimed by the Scottish Government’s Trade and Investment Envoys from 8 May 2024 to date. This should include detail about the cost of each claim and what the claim was for e.g. the purchase of airplane tickets.

The total amount spent on reimbursing expenses claimed by the Scottish Government’s Trade and Investment Envoys in every calendar year to date since the programme was established in 2017. 

Response

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

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, specifically records of Trade and Investment Envoy expense claims in the 2017/2018 Financial Year. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.

According to the Scottish Public Finance Manual, Annex 2: Retention of Financial Records, Section 2: Retention periods for public records are subject to the requirements of specific legislation but as a general rule retention periods for financial records should comply with those indicated in the Retention and Disposal Schedule for Accounting Records available on the website of the UK National Archives. These currently indicate that financial records should normally be retained for either 6 years or 2 years, depending on the type of record, following the end of the financial year in question.

With regards to your request for a list of all expenses claimed by the Scottish Government’s Trade and Investment Envoys from 8 May 2024 to date, which should include detail about the cost of each claim and what the claim was for e.g. the purchase of airplane tickets, please refer to Table 1 below.

Expense type	Reimbursed expenses
Accommodation	£ 3989.82
Travel (air)	£ 3560.16
Travel (other)	£ 1996.15
Sustenance	£ 377.03
Other/misc.	£ 2006.71
Total	£11929.87

Table 1

With regards to your request for the total amount spent on reimbursing expenses claimed by the Scottish Government’s Trade and Investment Envoys in every calendar year to date since the programme was established in 2017, please refer to Table 2 below. As stated above, we do not hold information relating to the 2017/2018 Financial Year.

Financial year	Reimbursed expenses
2018/2019	£ 2623.69
2019/2020	£ 3597.65
2020/2021	£ 2176.11
2021/2022	£ 57.22
2022/2023	£ 17107.42
2023/2024	£ 9371.89
2024/2025	£ 11138.41
TOTAL	£ 46,072.39

Table 2

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