Public Spending on First Minister’s World Cup Travel: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for a full, transparent accounting of every penny of public money spent on this trip — flights, hotels, hospitality, staff costs, and any other associated expenses and the benefits of this expense.

Response

The First Minister left Edinburgh on 11 June and arrived in Boston the same day. The First Minister then travelled from Boston to Kentucky on 14 June before leaving Kentucky on 15th June and arriving in Edinburgh on 16 June.

An exemption has been applied to information relating to the including officials who attended in support of Ministers. It is our intention to publish this data within 12 weeks. This is a formal notice under Section 27(1) that the information is intended for future publication. 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. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because of the use of public funds to support this visit, and this will be met by our planned publication. In the meantime, there is a greater public interest in taking the time necessary to ensure the information has been properly collated and checked before it is published as planned. Also, we see no public interest in disrupting our programme of work to release the information ahead of the intended publication date.

Match tickets for the First Minister and supporting officials at the Scotland vs Haiti match were provided by FIFA. We are aware that FIFA provided the same courtesy for Ministerial led delegations of other countries participating in the World Cup.

The First Minister travelled to the USA in an official capacity to support the national team at the World Cup and undertake a programme of engagements to strengthen trade, tourism, culture and diaspora relationships and seek to attract further inward investment in Scotland. Below is a list of business engagements which the First Minister undertook during his visit.

Date	Business / trade / investment meeting
12 June	FDI meeting with Black and Veatch
12 June	FDI Meeting with Broadridge
12 June	Cross-Sector Trade Roundtable on AI and Data
12 June	FDI meeting with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
13 June	FDI meeting with Preferabli
13 June	FDI meeting with Unanet
14 June	Briefing Dinner with Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) and Kentucky Distillers Association (KDA) representatives
15 June	Visit to Independent Stave Company Cooperage
15 June	Working Lunch with SWA and US Spirits Industry
15 June	Distillery tour and discussion with Bacardi (investor in Kentucky and Scotland) with Congressional Reps
23 June	FDI meeting with Cyber Salus

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