Scottish Blue Carbon forum: EIR release

Information requested

1. What date was the Scottish Blue Carbon Forum formed?

2. What is the total cost of this group to the Scottish Government from the date of its formation to 4/10/23.

3. Is there any catering cost associated to this group? If so what is it?

4. Are members renumerated in anyway?

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.

1. The Scottish Blue Carbon Forum (SBCF) was formed after a commitment in the 2017/18 programme for government. Work to set up the SBCF began in July 2018 and the first meeting of the forum took place in on 2 November 2018.

2. The two direct costs of the SBCF to the Scottish Government are the Chair’s cost to run the forum and provide expert advice to Scottish Ministers, and the cost of hosting the website.

The total cost of the website since its creation in 2019 is £1,000.60.

The total cost of remunerating the chair role from August 2018 to 31 March 2023 is £23,357.80. This figure does not include the chair’s costs for August 2020, due to an administrative error with the copy of the invoice on our internal system.

Whilst our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing part of your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reason why that exception applies is explained below.

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested because the invoices for quarter 1 and quarter 2 of this financial year have not yet been received from the chair, and therefore total costs from 1 April to 4 October 2023 are not yet known.

This exception 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 exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about the total cost of the SBCF to the Scottish Government from the date of its formation to 4 October 2023, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

3. The answer to your question is that no catering costs are associated with this group.

4. The answer to your question is yes, the chair of the SBCF is remunerated for the time spent on forum business. No other members of the forum are remunerated.

Remuneration for the current chair is set out in the Chair’s contract which states:

• “You will devote up to 20 days per year to performing your functions as and when required. You will attend meetings of the Forum regularly, and will contribute fully at these and to performing your other functions.”
• “£320 for every day of not less than 7.5 hours (excluding meal breaks) devoted to performing your functions (asrequired or requested by the Forum) on a pro rata basis”.
• This means annual chair remuneration costs is capped at a maximum of £6,400. This amount can be exceed if additional tasks are required by the forum’s chair. Any extension to the 20 days requires ministerial authorisation.

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.