Strategic hospitality funding and fair work compliance information: FOI release

Information requested

Details of any direct strategic funding or grants awarded by the Scottish Government to:

1. Princes Street Suites Ltd (Company No: SC255681, please also include its previous name ‘Waterloo Place Developments Ltd’)

2. The Edinburgh Collection Ltd (Company No: 07464182) - Registered in England but trading in Scotland.

3. Europoint Holdings Ltd (Company No: 03750593) - Registered in England but trading in Scotland.

4. Please note these entities operate locally as 'The Garner Hotel', 'Old Waverley Hotel', 'Haymarket Hub Hotel', 'Holyrood aparthotel', ‘Princess Street Suites’ and ‘Princess Street Apartments’. Please search records for these trading names as well as the limited company names.

You asked to provide:

1. Details of any specific hospitality support grants awarded post-2020.

2. The specific clauses within these grant offers that relate to "Fair Work" practices, specifically regarding the treatment of workers and compliance with the Equality Act 2010

3. Information regarding the process for recouping public funds if a recipient is found by an Employment Tribunal to have victimized a whistleblower or engaged in systemic discrimination and similar.

Response

1. We can confirm that we found no evidence of any direct payments from the Scottish Government to the companies that you have mentioned.

2. You can find more information in the Fair Work First: guidance - gov.scot. This includes clarifying evidence requirements for demonstrating compliance with the real Living Wage and effective voice grant conditions, and offering a more streamlined evidence gathering process.

3. The Scottish Government expects all grant recipients to comply with grant conditions. A grant offer letter is a contract, therefore non-compliance is a breach of this and should be dealt with in line with existing grant management guidance. The Scottish Public Finance Manual sets out the process for applying a clawback condition on funds, if reasonable and appropriate to do so.

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.