List of expenses claimed by Scottish Government staff based in the London office in 2024: FOI release
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Information requested
Under FOI, I would like to request a list and receipts of all expenses claimed by Scottish Government staff based in the London office in 2024.
Response
In responding to your request we have defined “expenses claimed” as any expense for which Scottish Government staff based in London made a claim for funds to be reimbursed.
The classification of, and information management, relating to expenses has evolved over recent years in line with updated corporate finance and information management systems and their related guidance.
As a result, and noting your submission of separate requests across a span of several years, the level of information held and therefore subject to release is varied across your related FOI requests pertaining to 2022-2025.
From October 2024 onwards, with the change to corporate information management systems, all receipts - with the exception of a small number of cases - are now stored centrally and as such are more easily recoverable. This will be visible in the provision of further receipt information in our response to your FOI request relating to 2025.
Finally, please be aware that the items shown on any individual receipt are not necessarily the items actually claimed for by staff. In many cases staff will have only claimed for certain items listed on a wider receipt. In line with corporate guidance, where receipts include alcohol or exceed the permitted threshold, only the approved meals allowance (which excludes alcohol) has been claimed.
I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in the attached annexes.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under the following sections apply to some of that information.
- Section 38(1)(b) – Personal data relating to a third party
- Section 17 – Information not held
The reasons why each of those exemptions apply are explained below.
Section 38(1)(b) – Personal data relating to a third party
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested.
Information is exempt under section 38(1)(b) if disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK GDPR.
The exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.
Redactions have been made where this is the case.
Section 17 – Information not held
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. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.
Prior to the introduction of an updated corporate information management system in October 2024, while central financial systems required contemporaneous provision of receipts on submission and approval of each expense claim, this central system did not retain these receipts. Where copies were held by contactable staff members, we have retrieved and provided this, subject to exemptions outlined above. However, there are some instances in which these receipts have not been recoverable or retained. This is indicated in attached annex document 1 where ‘receipt not recoverable’ or ‘no receipt’ is indicated alongside an individual expense line.
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.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG