Transport Scotland expenditure queries: FOI release

Information requested

1. The total amount spent on corporate functions by your organisation in the financial years 2021- 22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 to date. Please also break this down by the type of function – for example, human resources.

2. The total amount of money spent fixing/replacing broken equipment in the financial years 2021- 22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 to date.

3. The total financial loss to your organisation on written off inventory and IT equipment in the financial years 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 to date.

4. The total amount of money spent on consultants by your organisation in the financial years 2021- 22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 to date.

5. The total amount of money spent on agency staff by your organisation in the financial years 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 to date.

6. The total amount of money spent on recruitment agencies by your organisation in the financial years 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 to date.

7. The total amount of money spent on social media advertising by your organisation in the financial years 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 to date. Please provide the reason for the advertising in each case if possible.

8. The total amount of compensation payments made by your organisation in the financial years 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 to date.

Response

The tables denoting the total costs you requested for Transport Scotland is below:

1. Amount spent on Corporate Functions

For 2021/22, while our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance, the Scottish Government does not have this information you requested. This is because we didn’t disaggregate our corporate function expenditure before 22/23. This was collated as a full spend within the Corporate Directorate. This is formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

For 2022-23 to 2024-25 data included is subjective or apportioned spend to align with the requested categorisation as this level of granularity of spend is not readily available from Transport Scotland’s reporting system.

2022-23 Summary	Total Costs £000s
HR	287.01
FINANCE	1,860.95
COMMERCIAL	759.80
COMMS	629.39
DIGITAL & DATA	2,735.74
ESTATE	451.28
Total	6,724.18
2023-24 Summary	Total Costs £000s
HR	391.95
FINANCE	2,162.86
COMMERCIAL	660.78
COMMS	778.16
DIGITAL & DATA	1,315.63
ESTATE	136.01
Total	5,445.38
2024-25 Summary	Total Costs £000s
HR	425.06
FINANCE	2,416.48
COMMERCIAL	659.51
COMMS	920.37
DIGITAL & DATA	1,252.91
ESTATE	135.68
Total	5,810.00

2. Fixing/replacing broken equipment

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance, the Scottish Government does not have this information you requested. This is because expenditure for “fixing/replacing broken equipment” falls within wider account codes and cannot be accurately disaggregated. Transport Scotland also benefits from warranties associated with its contracts, which can be used when equipment is broken. This is formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

3. Financial loss to your organisation on written off inventory and IT equipment

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance, the Scottish Government does not have this information you have requested. This is because Transport Scotland uses equipment until their end-of-life, at which stage they are refreshed. Equipment that is faulty before this will be covered by their contractual warranties. This is formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

4. External Consultants.

Please note that information on Consultancy Costs and Agency Staff is published in Transport Scotland’s Annual Report and Accounts and readily available on the Transport Scotland website.

Financial Year	Total cost (£millions)
2021-22	£12.4
2022-23	£12.1
2023-24	£11.6
2024-25	£6.1
Total	£42.2

5. Agency Staff

Financial Year	Total cost (£millions)
2021-22	£2.4
2022-23	£1.5
2023-24	£0.9
2024-25	£1.0
Total	£5.8

6. Recruitment Agencies

During 2025-26 Transport Scotland moved to a new Cloud based system which changed the way in which recruitment data was collected.

Financial Year	Total cost (£millions)
2021-22	£4.4
2022-23	£4.9
2023-24	£5.3
2024-25	£6.9
Total	£21.5

7. Social Media Advertising

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance, the Scottish Government does not have this information you requested. This is because expenditure for “social media advertising” cannot be isolated from the wider account code, meaning that we are not able to disaggregate this accurately. This is formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

8. Compensation Payments

This information is available through published Annual Report and Accounts, which are available on the Transport Scotland website. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.

The links to the four published accounts in question are linked below:

2024-25: transport-scotland-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-25.pdf page 82
2023-24: Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24 page 105
2022-23: Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23 | Transport Scotland page 97
2021-22: Annual Report and Accounts for the Year Ended 31 March 2021 | Transport Scotland page 86

Information relating to the Financial Year 2025-26

An exemption under section 30(c) of FOISA applies to information relating to the Financial Year 2025- 26 as we recognise that there is some public interest in release and this will be met by our planned publication. Additionally, the 2025-26 figures requested are still subject to audit and it would not be in the public interest to release these figures into the public domain until they have been finalised.

The annual report and accounts will be published later in the summer and can be found on the Transport Scotland website.

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.