Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights Budget spend information: FOI release

Information requested

1. Across the last five years how much of the Scottish Government’s equalities, human rights and inclusion budget has been spent on activity to address violence against women and girls?

(Please could you break that down by year).

2. How much of the Scottish Government’s equalities, human rights and inclusion budget has been spent annually on activities to implement Hate Crime legislation?

(Please could you split this up by year).

When responding to your request on spend on activity to address violence against women and girls, I have interpreted “the last five years” to mean financial years 2020-21 to 2024-25.

Response

Question 1 - Spend from the Scottish Government’s Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights budget on activity to address violence against women and girls.

Equally Safe, Scotland’s strategy to prevent and eradicate violence against women and girls, highlights that tackling gender based violence involves collective effort across government

The following table shows a breakdown over the last five financial years, in relation to the Equality,Inclusion and Human Rights budget.

Financial Year	Expenditure
2020-2021	£14,623,919
2021-2022	£22,523,425
2022-2023	£24,770,990
2023-2024	£21,878,571
2024-2025	£22,811,211
Total	£106,608,116

Funding for the Caledonian System moved out of the Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights Budget to the Justice Budget in 2023-24.

UK Government Tampon Tax Fund grants are also reflected in the figures above, which came to an end in 2022-23.

You may also find the previously answered FOISA on Equally Safe Strategy funding and the recent announcement on multi-year funding for the Delivering Equally Safe fund of interest.

Question 2 – Spend from the Scottish Government’s Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights budget on activities to implement Hate Crime legislation.

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. Work legislation are not available. This is because the officials leading on implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 also have responsibility for delivering the wider Hate Crime Strategy for Scotland, and this work has been carried out concurrently. As a result, staffing costs are not recorded separately for these activities.

Some of the information you have requested has already been published, and can be found: Scottish government spent overall on the hate crime bill: FOI release - gov.scot

This is therefore a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that, where not already published, the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

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.