Transport Scotland late payment information: FOI release

Information requested

Details of instances in which Transport Scotland (including, where applicable, any agencies, bodies, or units for which it is ultimately responsible for supplier payments) has failed to pay its suppliers on time, thereby causing liabilities for late payment compensation and/or interest on late payments to be incurred for the public purse.

With the above points in mind, we request under FOISA that you provide, (in a machine readable format, preferably Microsoft Excel or CSV) the following information in respect of suppliers which were not paid in within 30 days for the period starting 1 April 2019 to the date of this request:

1. Supplier Name
2. Invoice Date
3. Invoice received date
4. Invoice Due date
5. Gross Invoice value
6. Payment Date
7. Payment Terms
8. Late Payment Compensation or Interest Paid (if any)

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested in the attached Excel file.

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 on interest and compensation.

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. Transport Scotland does not hold specific data on interest/compensation paid due to late payments. It is the responsibility of the supplier to request interest or compensation due by means of an invoice, these would be processed as normal so we are unable to identify any such invoices received.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption(s) under section(s) 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. To comply with data protection regulations, we have withheld the name of an individual who received payment within the attached file of information provided as it constitutes personal data.

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.

Additional information

The Scottish Government works within 30 day payment terms of the received date of the invoice within Accounts Payable (AP). Suppliers are advised on where to submit invoices when they receive the purchase order. Should the invoice not be submitted directly to Accounts Payable, the payment terms start from the date the invoice is received by AP. Our aim is to pay all invoices within 10 working days, as per our 2008 Ministerial Commitment.

Some transactions to other Government departments have been excluded prior to October 2024 as they were paid via internal transfer and not standard payments, therefore do not appear in the payment performance reports.

Please note that the Scottish Government moved to a new finance system in October 2024. There may be some changes to supplier names in order to facilitate new technology within the system. For example, Venesky-Brown Recruitment Limited is now known as VeneskyBrown.

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 202500494971 - Information released - Annex

File type

CSV file

File size

17.4 kB