Information surrounding various spending made by Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS): 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

Where the information for past financial years is already published in our Annual Report and Accounts (ARAs), we are applying Section 25(1) of FOISA, information otherwise accessible, and signposting you to the relevant publications.

Information for 2025–26 (year‑to‑date) is provided below where held:

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.

SAAS does not hold a financial category or dataset titled “corporate functions”, and expenditure is not recorded in a way that would allow us to isolate the total cost of HR, Finance, Communications or other corporate functions as separate items.

High‑level expenditure, including staff costs and directorate structures, is published annually within the SAAS Annual Reports and Accounts for the financial years 2021–22 to 2024–25. These publications do not disaggregate spend to the level requested.

As this information is available publicly, it is exempt from disclosure under Section 25(1) of FOISA (information otherwise accessible). You can access the Annual Reports and Accounts here:

https://www.saas.gov.uk/about-saas/corporate-publications

SAAS does not hold a breakdown in the format requested for 2025–26 year‑to‑date, as we do not record “corporate functions” as a standalone category. We therefore issue a notice under Section 17(1) of FOISA for that part of your request.

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.

SAAS does not maintain a separate budget code or reporting category for “fixing or replacing broken equipment” and therefore does not hold historical expenditure in the format requested.

For the current financial year 2025–26, although no such category exists, we have confirmed through checks of our financial records that no expenditure of this nature has been identified to date, resulting in a nil return.

We therefore issue a notice under Section 17(1) that SAAS does not hold this information.

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.

2021-22: £0.00
2022-23: £0.00
2023-24: £0.00
2024-25: £328.04
2025 to date: £0.00

As no historical data of this type is published in ARAs, this question has been answered in full the above figures are provided in full.

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.

Consultancy spend for the financial years 2021–22 to 2024–25 is already published in SAAS’s Annual Reports and Accounts. Consultancy expenditure appears within the “Other Expenditure” or “Consultancy” sections of the Notes to the Accounts in those publications.

Accordingly, this information is exempt from disclosure under Section 25(1) of FOISA (information otherwise accessible).

Published totals are as follows:

2021–22: £0.00
2022–23: £2,350.00
2023–24: £3,300.00
2024–25: £0.00
2025–26 (year‑to‑date): £0.00.

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.

Agency staff costs for 2021–22 to 2024–25 are published annually within the “Staff Costs” note of the ARAs. Therefore, Section 25(1) applies.

For convenience, these published totals are:

2021–22: £832,622.00
2022–23: £1,452,161.00
2023–24: £2,432,796.00
2024–25: £2,924,038.00

2025–26 (YTD)

Agency staffing expenditure to date: £3,173,492.60.

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.

SAAS does not use recruitment agencies to fill permanent posts. Accordingly, no expenditure has been incurred on recruitment agency fees in the financial years 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24, 2024–25 and 2025–26 to date.

SAAS does, where necessary, engage temporary workers via Scottish Government contingent labour frameworks. These arrangements are for the provision of temporary staffing services and are not classified within our financial records as recruitment agency expenditure, nor are such individuals paid via the SAAS payroll.

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.

Past-year figures for 2021–22 to 2024–25 were sourced from our Communications Team and are provided below as they are not fully itemised in ARA publications.

2021-22: £29,896.03
2022-23: £7,616.00
2023-24: £11,790.24
2024-25: £18,218.33
2025 to date: £13,905.08

The key purpose of our paid for activity on social media is to raise general awareness of SAAS business and prompt action from students, parent/carers and stakeholders. We advertise the fact that we are open for applications, encourage students to apply early and before the 30 June Guarantee 

Date, to ensure they receive their funding in time for the start of their course. We also highlight different funding programmes for students and important messaging to help them on their learner journey.

Paid for social media messaging is published across a range of our channels, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube.

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.

The total compensation payments made by SAAS were:

2021–22: £0
2022–23: £0
2023–24: Two payments totalling £53,582.36 (£13,138.73 and £40,443.63)
2024–25: £0
2025–26 (year‑to‑date): £0

Access to Published Annual Reports

You can access all SAAS Annual Reports and Accounts here: https://www.saas.gov.uk/about-saas/corporate-publications

These include audited financial statements, staff‑cost breakdowns (including agency staffing), consultancy disclosures, directorate structures, and operating‑cost categories for all published years.

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.