Scottish Government spending or investment related to alcohol: FOI release

Information requested

Information about any Scottish Government spending or investment related to alcohol or alcohol-related products for the three financial years (2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24):

1. Hospitality, Events and Gifts
Please provide:

• A breakdown of any expenditure on alcohol purchased or reimbursed by the Scottish Government for:
  • Official events, receptions, or functions (internal or external)
  • Staff or client hospitality
  • Gifts to external parties
• For each instance (if recorded), include:
  • Date
  • Event or occasion
  • Type and value of alcohol purchased
  • Department or unit incurring the cost

Response

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 a centralised record on expenditure information if alcohol was purchased for official events, receptions or functions (internal or external) nor for anything gifted to external parties or for staff or client hospitality.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

The Scottish Government policy on Travel and Subsistence expenses does not allow for the reimbursements for alcoholic drinks under any circumstances.

I have enclosed a list of all transactions made on Scottish Government electronic purchasing cards (ePC) that relate to alcohol or alcohol related products for the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. I have included the Line Item Description field where the cardholder has provided a brief description of their purchase which involved alcohol or alcohol related products.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names/contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation Scottish Ministers, special advisers and the Permanent Secretary are covered by the terms of the Lobbying (Scotland) Act 2016.

The Scottish Government ePC Policy was updated in January 2024 to exclude alcohol except in exceptional circumstances.

I would also like to draw your attention to our regular published spend for transactions over £500 for electronic Purchasing Cards (ePC): Government spend over £500: monthly reports - gov.scot and also our monthly and annual reports of Scottish Government spend over £25,000 Government spend over £25,000: Government spend over £25,000: monthly and annual reports - gov.scot.

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.

FOI 202500476450 - Information released - Transactions

File type

Excel document

File size

29.9 kB