Scottish Government spending or investment related to alcohol: FOI Review

Information requested

Original request 202500476450

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

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for information regarding alcohol-related expenditure for 2021/22 to 2023/24 under case number 202500476450.

Your original request

• 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 to your review request

I have concluded that the original response should have included a search of the general ledger (GL) in the Scottish Government finance system and should not have been restricted to electronic purchasing cards (ePC). I apologise for this oversight.

In addition to requesting information relating to alcohol-related expenditure, you have also asked for confirmation regarding whether any monitoring or compliance checks exist to enforce the 'no alcohol' rule. All payments made by Scottish Government, whether by ePC or through the Accounts Payable ledger itself, follow a two-stage requisition and approval process. Staff who act in these roles are required to undertake comprehensive training which includes governance procedures. Whilst there are no overarching monitoring or compliance checks in place for alcohol-related spend, individual areas have a dedicated Budget Centre Liaison Officer (BCLO) who is responsible for budget monitoring and reporting activities.

Additionally, the Scheme of Delegation process delegates financial responsibility from the Principal Accountable Officer through Directors to Deputy Directors, and includes requirements for regularity and propriety of expenditure, and gifts and donations. Deputy Directors are required to provide assurance on their financial responsibilitiesthrough the annual Certificates of Assurance process.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. There is no separate account code for alcohol-related purchases in the Scottish Government finance system. In order to provide the information requested, a search through individual invoices covering account codes for ministerial gifts, catering, hospitality, and gifts and awards would be required to determine whether they include alcohol-related expenditure. The estimated cost of the time taken to investigate the large number of invoices would exceed the £600 upper cost limit. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. Requesting information on a specific area or reducing the time frame of your request may help in this regard. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

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.