Scottish Government international office queries: FOI release

Information requested

• The number of international offices, operated by the Scottish Government, as of August 2025.
• A list of where these international offices are situated, including the number of staff in each officer and annual budget allocation.
• Any additional costs associated with the operation of these offices, which are not otherwise included in the annual budget allocation, as set out in previous answer.

Response

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

In regards to your first two questions, all of the information you have requested is available from Scotland's International Network Annual Report https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlandsinternational-network-annual-report-2023-24/pages/8/. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Categories of expenditure not included in the individual budget line for each office are relocation costs for officers and healthcare costs. Relocation costs are met centrally where an officer is relocated to a role which requires them to permanently move their home for the duration of their assignment. These figures can vary year-to-year depending on the timing of officers reaching the end of their assignment and new officers taking up post. For the date range specified, which we have interpreted as the financial year-to-date, relocation costs for international roles have been £74,947. We are not able to break these down by office as an exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Healthcare costs are also met centrally for officers and their accompanying family in overseas roles where there is not an arrangement between the UK Government and the receiving state to provide for reciprocal access to public healthcare systems by diplomatic staff and their families. These costs can also vary year-to-year depending on when officers or their family members have need of medical treatment. We are not able to provide information on healthcare costs for the date range specified as an exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

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.