Total spend on engineering and energy expertise including Energised Environments Limited contract: EIR release

Information requested

Please can you provide me with the following information:

1. The Scottish Government’s total spend on this public contract, awarded to Energised Environments Limited in October 2022.
2. The amount of spend on technical or specialist services, providing expertise or expert advice/assurance, relating to engineering, energy, or technical appraisal, for the financial year 2024/25 , broken down by Directorate.
3. The same for financial year 2025/26.

I have used this terminology because I am aware that not all public bodies treat outsourced engineering expertise as consultancy spend.

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

We are treating your request in 3 parts.

In relation to part 1 of your request -

1. The Scottish Government's total spend on Award of Green Growth Accelerator Programme: Technical Assurance of Business Cases to Energised Environments Limited t/a ITPEnergised was £5880 (including VAT).

In relation to parts 2 and 3 the table below provides the breakdown by Directorate for FY 24/25 and FY 25/26. Please note we have interpreted your request as follows -

For information on technical or specialist services (providing expertise or expert advice/assurance) relating to engineering and energy,
The Directorates approached for information were ones that we thought would most likely have directly spent on engineering and energy expertise as consultancy spend.
If you feel that the request has been misinterpreted then please contact us.

MiCase Ref: 202600514547 - EIR Information on technical or specialist services (providing expertise or expert advice/assurance) relating to engineering and energy by organisations external to SG for Financial Year 24/25 (1 April 2024 to 31 March 25) and Financial Year 25/26 (1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026).
Directorate	FY 24/25	FY 25/26
Energy and Climate Change	£2,509,000	£2,199,000
Marine	£68,000	£15,000
Offshore Wind	£0	£529,000

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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.