Documentation and costs of Cabinet Secretary for Housing's London trip: FOI release

Information requested

• The full costs from Mairi McAllan's trip to London in November 2025, including civil servants expenses, her full expenses including travel details and accommodation.
• All documentation held about/from this trip, including correspondence sent and received (including internal), minute/notes from meetings, analysis, and briefings, between November 1 2025 and December 15 2025.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

In answer to your first question, some of the information you have requested is publicly available from Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot. Information on the Cabinet Secretary’s travel and accommodation for the trip to London in November 2025 has been published and that can be found via this link. You will find it under the domestic travel and accommodation tab. The Cabinet Secretary has claimed no additional expenses during this visit. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Travel and subsistence costs for Scottish Government officials supporting the Cabinet Secretary on this visit totalled £1,153.58.

In answer to your second question, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600 due to the volume of emails sent over your specified time-frame. Under section 12 of FOISA, public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

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.