Scottish Government spend on the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy: FOI release

Information requested

1. Could you supply how much money the Scottish Government has spent on its New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy, and its predecessors, in each of the last five years, with a breakdown of costs per year and what the money was spent on?

2. Could you supply all documentation held by the Scottish Government, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), minute/notes from meetings, briefings, analysis, about the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy, from the last month?

Response

Question 1

The New Scots refugee integration strategy is built on partnership and collaboration, led by the Scottish Government, COSLA and Scottish Refugee Council, and involves a wide range of partners across different sectors.

Scottish Refugee Council

Most of the information you have requested relating to Scottish Refugee Council is available from the Scottish Parliament Website: Written question and answer: S6W-35432 | Scottish Parliament Website. This provides a breakdown of the funding the Scottish Government has given Scottish Refugee Council between March 2020 and 5 March 2025.

Additional information on the funding the Scottish Government has provided to Scottish Refugee Council between 6 March 2025 and 29 July 2025 is contained within the response to your FOI request of 29 July 2025 and this can be found on our website at: Scottish Government funding to the Scottish Refugee Council: FOI release - gov.scot

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.

Full details of the grants awarded to Scottish Refugee Council in 2025/26 (these totals are inclusive of any 2025/26 shared previously):

Funding Title	2025/26 amount awarded
Supporting Lived Experience Involvement in the Implementation of the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy and Supporting the Delivery of the New Scots ESOL Conference	£27,000
Refugee Support Service (1 April - 30 September)*	£1,600,000
Supporting Scottish Government priorities and the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy	£400,000

*This grant ended with the start of the Refugee Support Service contract from 1 October 2025 (details below).

Other Third Sector Stakeholder Funding

The Scottish Government funds a number of organisations for work supporting refugee integration, currently through the Refugees, Resettlement and Asylum Division budget.

Organisation	2020/21 amount awarded	2021/22 amount awarded	2022/23 amount awarded	2023/24 amount awarded	2024/25 amount awarded	2025/26 amount awarded
Bridges Programmes	£106,558	£106,558	£106,558	£106,558	£106,558	£106,558
British Red Cross	£35,000	£35,000	£35,000	£35,000	£35,000	£35,000
Community Info Source	£10,000	£10,000	£10,000	£10,000	£10,000	£10,000
Forth Valley Welcome	£9,500	£9,500	£9,500	£9,500	£9,500	£9,500
Freedom From Torture	£40,000	£40,000	£40,000	£40,000	£40,000	£40,000
Govan Community Project	£25,000	£25,000	£25,000	£25,000	£25,000	£25,000
Maryhill Integration Network	£60,000	£60,000	£60,000	£60,000	£60,000	£60,000

Organisation	2020/21 amount awarded	2021/22 amount awarded	2022/23 amount awarded	2023/24 amount awarded	2024/25 amount awarded	2025/26 amount awarded
Mental Health Foundation	£60,000	£60,000	£60,000	£60,000	£60,000	£60,000
The Welcoming Association	£60,000	£60,000	£60,000	£60,000	£60,000	£60,000*

*Contribution as part of a larger joint grant also covering Ukraine Resettlement work. This totalled £136,500.

New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project

All of the information requested relating to Scottish Government spending on this EU-funded project is available on our website through the following FOI responses:

• New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project: FOI release - gov.scot. This covers the period between 1 October 2020 and 30 September 2023.
• Funding allocated to the New Scots Programme: FOI release - gov.scot. This covers the remaining period between 1 October - 31 December 2023.

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.

New Scots Partnership Costs

To support the development of the third New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy and the associated Delivery Plan, between 1 January - 30 June 2024 the Scottish Government provided funding for staff who had previously been funded for this work through the EU-funded New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project.

All of the information relating to this funding for Scottish Refugee Council is available from the Scottish Parliament Website: Written question and answer: S6W-35432 | Scottish Parliament Website.

Details of funding provided to the other two New Scots Refugee Integration Delivery Project partners, COSLA and the University of Glasgow, are as follows:

Organisation	2023/24 amount awarded (covering 1 January - 31 March 2024)	2024/25 amount awarded (covering 1 April - 30 June 2024)
COSLA	£10,500	N/A - work included within wider grant to COSLA Migration, Population and Diversity Team
University of Glasgow	£24,883	£24,683

Refugee Support Service

The 2025/26 Programme for Government commits to establishing a new Integration Support Service. Delivery began on 1 October 2025 and will run until March 2028 with an option to extend for a further two years. Scottish Refugee Council were awarded the contract to deliver the Service for 30 months at a cost of £8m.

New Scots Delivery Plan Actions

N.B. Funding for 2024/25 was part year, and was awarded following the publication of the New Scots Delivery Plan on 5 July 2024.

Organisation(s)	Project Description	2024/25 amount awarded	2025/26 amount awarded
British Red Cross	Family Reunion Support	£100,000	£188,825
Simon Community Scotland	Interpreting and Translation project	£12,500	£39,720
Glasgow ESOL partnership	ESOL classes in Glasgow	£500,000	£747,200
University of Glasgow	Research and multi-lingual integration training	N/A	£10,000
European Network on Statelessness	Statelessness Toolkit for Scotland	N/A	£10,000
Skills Development Scotland	Employer engagement, employability and skills recognition	N/A	£40,000

Question 2

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.This is because the amount of time it would take to review and potentially redact information would exceed the 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. For example, you may wish to specify a particular area of work within the strategy, to allow us to complete the request. 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.