Laptops and bicycles pledge & funds for legal challenge to Court of Appeal: FOI release

Information requested

1. The provision of laptops and bicycles would be offered once you were re-elected. Many months later this has not transpired. Can you confirm as to why this manifesto promise has not been followed through? Also when is this likely to happen?
2. The Court of Appeal declined the SNPs appeal. How much did this legal challenge cost? Where did these funds come from?

Response

1. In 2020/21 as a result of the school closures due to the pandemic the Scottish Government provided £25m of digital inclusion funding to local authorities to support learners in line with their own local needs. This funding provided 14,000 internet connections and 72,000 tablets and laptops for learners across all local authorities. In 2021 the Scottish Government established six pilot schemes to provide free bikes for school age children who cannot afford one. A further four pilots were then established by the end of 2021. The official pilot period concluded at the end of August 2022 and we are now evaluating the findings to determine the best route to a national rollout. It is worth noting that whilst the evaluation is underway, funding is still in place and bikes will continue to be issued until March 2023. To date, over 2857 free bikes have been given to eligible children. You may be interested to know that during the remainder of 2022/23 we will continue preparatory work with COSLA and local authorities to ensure that every school-aged child has access to a device and connectivity to support their learning by the end of this parliamentary term in 2026.
2. Some of the information you have requested is available from the Scottish Government website. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. However, in the interests of being helpful, we have provided links to the relevant material below: Independence referendum Supreme Court referral: legal costs - gov.scot. As set out in our response to PQ S6W-09691, the Scottish Government intends to proactively publish information about the costs of the litigation, including a breakdown of these costs. Accordingly, an exemption under Section 27 (information intended for future publication) applies to some of the information you have requested. This exemption allows public authorities to refuse to disclose information if they already plan to publish it within the next 12 weeks. The reasons why this exemption applies are set out in Annex B. Some of the information you have requested is available from the Scottish Parliament website. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. However, in the interests of being helpful, we have provided links to the relevant material below: Written question and answer: S6W-11224. As set out in answer to PQ S6W-11224 the costs of the Supreme Court referral are being met from the 2022-23 Government Business and Constitutional Relations budget line.

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202200332970_Annex B

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