Funding for various organisations since 2018/19: FOI release

Information requested

How much money the Scottish Government has provided for the following organisations in every financial year since 2018/19:

• Blue Marine Foundation
• Community of Arran Seabed Trust
• Fidra
• Marine Concern
• Marine Conservation Society
• National Trust for Scotland
• Open Seas
• Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Scotland
• Royal Yachting Association
• Scottish Seabird Centre
• Scottish Environment Link
• Seal Scotland
• Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust
• Whale and Dolphin Conservation
• WWF Scotland

Response

A copy of some of the information you requested is below. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this case exemptions apply to some of the information. I have set out below why these exemptions apply, and outlined the public interest in maintaining the exemptions where appropriate.

Where we hold the information, we have provided the aggregated sum of money provided to each organisation, for each financial year from 2018-19. This includes grant funding and any other sources of money.

Note also, the information provided here does not cover money that may have been provided by other Public Bodies in Scotland to any of these organisations. An example of this would be the Nature Restoration Fund, where Scottish Government provides funding to NatureScot who then distribute money to organisations through a competitive application process. In this example, Scottish Government does not hold information on how those funds are distributed and they have therefore not be included as part of this release. If you have specific areas of interest that you think may fall in this category, you may wish to contact other relevant Public Bodies directly.

An exemption(s) under section 25(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. An explanation of why this exemption applies is provided in Annex A.

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.

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 in the Annex B to this letter. 

Annex A
An exemption applies
An exemption(s) under section 25(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. This is because some of this information has already been published and is available at the links provided below.

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.

Information already published

National Trust for Scotland (last 5 years to 11/06/2021): Total amount of grants awarded to National Trust of Scotland: FOI release - gov.scot 

RSPB (last 5 years, 16/03/2023, and includes payments from SG affiliated bodies): Funding provided to The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) charity: EIR release - gov.scot 

Scottish Seabird centre: Coastal Communites Fund - gov.scot 

Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust: Coastal Communites Fund - gov.scot 

John Muir Trust: Coastal Communites Fund - gov.scot

Keep Scotland Beautiful (to Nov 2021): Total spend on Keep Scotland Beautiful: EIR release -
gov.scot 

Annex B
The Scottish Government does not have the information
The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because we have no records of money being provided to the following organisations.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

Organisations:

• Blue Marine Foundation
• Community of Arran Seabed Trust
• Fidra
• Marine Concern
• Open Seas
• Scottish Environment Link (direct)
• Seal Scotland
• Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust
• Whale and Dolphin Conservation

Members of Scottish Environment Link:

• Amphibian and reptile association
• Archaeology Scotland
• Association for the protection of rural Scotland/APRS
• Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation group/BSCG
• Bat Conservation Trust
• British Dragonfly Society
• British Ecological Society
• Buglife
• BumbleBee Conservation Trust
• Butterfly Conservation Scotland
• Cairngorms Campaign
• Chartered Institute of Ecology and environmental management/CIEEM
• Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland
• Friends of the Earth Scotland
• Froglife
• Nature Foundation
• North East Mountain Trust
• Nourish Scotland
• Planning Democracy
• Scottish Badgers
• Scottish Campaign for National Parks
• Scottish Countryside Rangers Association
• Scottish Farming and Wildlife Advisers’ Group/ScotFWAG
• Scottish Raptor Study Group
• Scottish Wild Beaver Group
• Scottish Wild Land Group
• Soil Association Scotland
   

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.