Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) funding information: FOI Review

Information requested

Original request 202500490022

The following information covering the period from April 2023 to the present [21 October 2025]

1. Funding of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS)
Copies of any ministerial submissions, briefings, correspondence or internal papers relating to:
1. Annual budget allocations to SCTS; In-year top-up funding (including Recover, Renew and Transform funding);
2. Any consideration or analysis of moving SCTS to a multi-year funding settlement.

2. Risk registers and financial risk analysis
1. Copies of any risk registers, risk assessments or internal risk analysis documents that refer to: Financial sustainability or budget pressures relating to SCTS;
2. Risks to court capacity or service delivery caused by insufficient funding;
3. Risks or implications of not adopting a multi-year funding model.

3. Financial modelling and forecasts
1. Any internal financial modelling, spreadsheets or analysis relating to:
2. Future funding requirements for SCTS;
3. Projected costs of court operations, staffing, or estate maintenance;
4. The impact of inflation or increased caseloads on SCTS finances.

4. Ministerial engagement
• A list of meetings or correspondence between Scottish Ministers (or Special Advisers) and SCTS that involved discussions on funding, court capacity, or financial risk since April 2023.

Response

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for:

The following information covering the period from April 2023 to the present [21 October 2025]

1. Funding of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS)
Copies of any ministerial submissions, briefings, correspondence or internal papers relating to:
1. Annual budget allocations to SCTS; In-year top-up funding (including Recover, Renew and Transform funding);
2. Any consideration or analysis of moving SCTS to a multi-year funding settlement.

2. Risk registers and financial risk analysis
1. Copies of any risk registers, risk assessments or internal risk analysis documents that refer to: Financial sustainability or budget pressures relating to SCTS;
2. Risks to court capacity or service delivery caused by insufficient funding;
3. Risks or implications of not adopting a multi-year funding model.

3. Financial modelling and forecasts
1. Any internal financial modelling, spreadsheets or analysis relating to:
2. Future funding requirements for SCTS;
3. Projected costs of court operations, staffing, or estate maintenance;
4. The impact of inflation or increased caseloads on SCTS finances.

4. Ministerial engagement
• A list of meetings or correspondence between Scottish Ministers (or Special Advisers) and SCTS that involved discussions on funding, court capacity, or financial risk since April 2023.

Our response

I have concluded that the original decision should be confirmed, with modifications.

I have been asked to re-examine your request, to decide whether the original response should be confirmed, with or without modifications, as appropriate, or a fresh decision be substituted. I can confirm that I was not involved in the handling or decision-making around the original response. I have considered this case again, and have conducted a comprehensive review of the response, and the reasons behind withholding the requested information.

I apologise that the initial response was not sufficiently clear about how section 12 of FOISA had been applied. Having reviewed the request and the searches undertaken, I am upholding the original decision to apply section 12 in relation to parts 1–3. I remain satisfied that the cost of identifying, locating and retrieving the information for these elements would exceed the £600 statutory limit, and that the application of section 12 was therefore appropriate.

The cost limit has been exceeded because the material falling within scope spans multiple SCTS business areas and a wide range of funding related work strands. Documents relating to baseline budgets, in year adjustments, and multi year funding considerations are held across several policy teams covering Criminal Courts, Civil Courts, Tribunals, the Office of the Public Guardian, digital transformation activity, and wider corporate functions. Each area generates its own submissions, briefings, correspondence and internal analysis for SCTS, which results in a very large volume of ERDM and email records across multiple financial years. Identifying and reviewing all documents that might fall within scope across these different operational and funding workstreams exceeds the FOISA cost threshold.

However, for part 4, I am substituting a new decision, as this element can be responded to without exceeding the cost threshold. If you wish to receive further information on parts 1–3, you may wish to narrow the timeframe, specify particular documents or individuals, or otherwise refine the scope to bring the cost of compliance within the statutory limit. Set out below is advice to assist you in narrowing each part of the request so it may fall within the cost limit.

Request 1

Funding of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS)

Copies of any ministerial submissions, briefings, correspondence or internal papers relating to:
Annual budget allocations to SCTS; In-year top-up funding (including Recover, Renew and Transform funding);
Any consideration or analysis of moving SCTS to a multi-year funding settlement.

To help bring this part of your request within the FOISA cost limit, you may wish to narrow the scope in one or more ways.

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) covers a wide range of operational business areas, including Criminal Courts, Civil Courts, the Office of the Public Guardian, and numerous Tribunal jurisdictions, each of which generates separate submissions, briefings and correspondence on funding matters.

Limiting your request to one business area would substantially reduce the volume of material that must be identified and reviewed. You may also wish to restrict the time period, or limit your request to one of the three topics you have identified (annual budget allocations, in year top up funding, or multi year funding considerations).

The most resource intensive material relates to non baselined areas, particularly Tribunals and the Recovery, Renewal and Transformation (RRT) programme, where funding estimates are continually modelled and refined through an iterative process between policy teams and SCTS, resulting in in year adjustments at Autumn Budget Revision and Spring Budget Revision.

Narrowing your request to a specific Tribunal chamber, a defined financial year, or particular types of documents—such as ministerial submissions only—would significantly reduce the number of documents captured in searches and may help bring this request within the statutory limit.

REQUEST 2

Risk registers and financial risk analysis

Copies of any risk registers, risk assessments or internal risk analysis documents that refer to: Financial sustainability or budget pressures relating to SCTS;
Risks to court capacity or service delivery caused by insufficient funding;
Risks or implications of not adopting a multi-year funding model.

As with part 1, the information relevant to this element of your request sits within the same substantial body of material identified during the original searches. To help bring this part of the request within the FOISA cost limit, you may wish to narrow the scope by focusing on one specific type of risk such as financial sustainability, capacity pressures, or multi year funding considerations rather than all three. You may also find it helpful to restrict the request to a defined time period or to a single business area within SCTS.

The most variable and resource intensive information relates to non baselined areas such as Tribunals and the Recovery, Renewal and Transformation (RRT) programme, where risk and funding assessments are refined throughout the year through iterative engagement between policy teams and SCTS. Narrowing your request to a particular Tribunal chamber, a specific financial year, or a defined risk register or assessment would significantly reduce the number of documents that would require identification and review.

Because the information relevant to this part is embedded within the large volume of documents identified under part 1, any refinement of topic, date range, document type or responsible team would significantly reduce the number of records requiring search and review.

Information relating to financial sustainability and budget pressures is mainly held by Justice Finance; risks relating to court capacity and service delivery sit primarily with the Courts Policy and Criminal Justice teams. In addition, Tribunal related risks are generally held by the Tribunals Policy team, while risks associated with Recovery, Renewal and Transformation (RRT) related work are mainly held by the Criminal Justice Board. Focusing your request on a single team, a single risk area, or a defined time period would significantly reduce the number of documents requiring identification and review.

REQUEST 3

Financial modelling and forecasts

Any internal financial modelling, spreadsheets or analysis relating to:
Future funding requirements for SCTS;
Projected costs of court operations, staffing, or estate maintenance;
The impact of inflation or increased caseloads on SCTS finances.

To help bring this part of the request within the FOISA cost limit, it may be helpful to narrow your request to a specific aspect of the modelling work undertaken in relation to SCTS.

All Scottish Government modelling in this area is based on information provided by SCTS.

SCTS publishes modelling data on their website – this can be found
Publications | Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service

For baseline areas SCTS provides annual estimates and future years estimates.

You may therefore wish to focus on a particular baseline component or a defined financial year. The most variable and resource intensive modelling relates to the non baselined areas, particularly Tribunals and Recovery, Reform and Transformation (RRT).

For Tribunals estimates are continually modelled and refined during each financial year. This is an iterative process between ‘home’ policy areas and SCTS culminating in in-year transfers through the Autumn Budget Revision and Spring Budget Revision process.

As RRT funding is calculated annually based on SCTS estimates of additional criminal court capacity required to address backlogs, additional staffing needs in areas such as the Office of the Public Guardian, and funding requirements for digital transformation. You may therefore wish to refine your request to one specific aspect of this work such as a defined area of RRT activity - recovery, reform or transformation, or a specific type of modelling output which would substantially reduce the volume of information requiring identification and review.

Part 4 of the Request

Ministerial engagement

• A list of meetings or correspondence between Scottish Ministers (or Special Advisers) and SCTS that involved discussions on funding, court capacity, or financial risk since April 2023.

In your review request, you explained that producing a list of engagements should have been treated as a separable, low cost component of the original request, and I have taken account of that point in reaching my decision. I apologise that the original response did not provide the list of meetings between Scottish Ministers (or Special Advisers) and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS).

I am substituting a new decision for part 4.

The list of meetings falling within scope is now provided in Annex A.

ANNEX A

The SCTS Chief Executive meets with the Cabinet Secretary for Justice on a regular basis
The Lord President meets with the Cabinet Secretary for Justice on a regular basis

A list of the meetings within requested time period is set out below

Chief Executive meetings with Cabinet Secretary for Justice

13 September 2023
15 November 2023
29 May 2024
25 September 2024
12 December 2024
27 February 2025
7 May 2025

Lord President meetings

26 April 2023
25 October 2023
22 February 2024
24 July 2024
18 September 2024
4 December 2024
5 March 2025
4 June 2025

Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government and Lord President
21 November 2024

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.