Correspondence sent to the BBC regarding compaints about stories: FOI release

Information requested

1. Could you supply all correspondence sent between BBC Scotland and the Scottish Government regarding complaints about stories from the last two months?
2. How much money has the Scottish Government spent on its Scotland is Now X social media page in the last three years, including a breakdown of costs and per year, including costs of videos?

Response

1.
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, including names and contact details of officials, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This 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.

FOI document 1 – email from Scottish Government comms to BBC

From: [redacted S.38(1)(b)]@gov.scot>
Sent: 28 May 2026 15:00
To: [redacted S.38(1)(b)]@bbc.co.uk
Subject: FW: Sunday Show
Hello [redacted S.38(1)(b)]

I’m emailing to pick up on a significant error in the Sunday Show broadcast on May 24th. In his interview with Jenny Gilruth, Gary Robertson gave a wildly inaccurate figure for the cost of special advisers, claiming “The number of Special Advisers has jumped over the last ten years, the bill is somewhere in the region of £2 billon per annum” and going on to ask Ms Gilruth whether Special Advisers were “£2bn well spent?”

This is plainly not credible and is about ten times the true figure.

Once could be a slip of the tongue, but it seems as if this may have been an error in Gary’s briefing or research.

We publish the costs regularly via Government questions as below:

2021-22: £1,434,693.34
2022-23: £1,909,843
2023-24: £1,906,963
2024-35: £1,745,042

Written question and answer: S6W-17817 | Scottish Parliament Website
Written question and answer: S6W-29660 | Scottish Parliament Website
Written question and answer: S6W-38463 | Scottish Parliament Website

Could I ask that this is corrected on next week’s programme, or at the very least is not repeated?

Regards,

[redacted S.38(1)(b)]
[redacted S.38(1)(b)] | Senior media manager | Finance, Local Government and Corporate Scottish Government, St Andrew's House
[redacted S.38(1)(b)]@gov.scot
Mob: [redacted S.38(1)(b)]
FOI document 2 – Forwarded email within Scottish Government with BBC response

From: [redacted S.38(1)(b)]<[redacted S.38(1)(b)]@gov.scot>
Sent: 29 May 2026 15:21
To: Julie Grant <Julie.Grant@gov.scot>
Cc: [redacted S.38(1)(b)]<[redacted S.38(1)(b)]@gov.scot>; [redacted S.38(1)(b)]< [redacted S.38(1)(b)]@gov.scot>
Subject: FW: Correction request re Sunday Show 24/5/26

Fyi,

[redacted S.38(1)(b)]

From: [redacted S.38(1)(b)[<[redacted S.38(1)(b)]@bbc.co.uk>
Sent: 29 May 2026 15:18
To: [redacted S.38(1)(b)]<[redacted S.38(1)(b)@gov.scot]>
Cc: [redacted S.38(1)(b)]@bbc.co.uk
Subject: Re: Correction request re Sunday Show 24/5/26

[redacted S.38(1)(b)]
[redacted S.38(1)(b)]
[redacted S.38(1)(b)]
BBC Scotland politics programmes

On 29 May 2026, at 10:39, [redacted S.38(1)(b)]@gov.scot wrote:

External: Think before clicking
Hello [redacted S.38(1)(b)],

I’m emailing to request an on-air correction of the figure aired in last weekend’s Sunday Show about the cost of Special Advisers.

As previously discussed, during the interview with Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth, broadcast on May 24th, Gary Robertson gave an extremely inaccurate figure for the cost of special advisers, claiming “The number of Special Advisers has jumped over the last ten years, the bill is somewhere in the region of £2 billon per annum” and subsequently pressing Ms Gilruth on whether Special Advisers were “£2bn well spent?”

This is plainly not credible and approximately 1000 times the true figure. You said an on-air correction would need to be escalated to the Head of News for a view and I’d be grateful if you could do this, however as this was clearly an error and a significant one, I’d expect it would meet the threshold for a correction.

For info, we publish the annual expenditure on Spads regularly via Government questions as below:

2021-22: £1,434,693.34
2022-23: £1,909,843
2023-24: £1,906,963
2024-35: £1,745,042

Written question and answer: S6W-17817 | Scottish Parliament Website
Written question and answer: S6W-29660 | Scottish Parliament Website
Written question and answer: S6W-38463 | Scottish Parliament Website

Regards,

[redacted S.38(1)(b)]
[redacted S.38(1)(b)] | Senior media manager | Finance, Local Government and Corporate Scottish Government, St Andrew's House
[redacted S.38(1)(b)]@gov.scot
Mob: [redacted S.38(1)(b)]

2.

There has been no paid media spend on the Scotland is Now X account in the last three years.

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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.