Total spend on independence bill to the Supreme Court: FOI release

Information requested

1. How much has the Scottish Government spent to date on external legal counsel in taking the independence bill to the Supreme Court?
2. How much does the Scottish Government estimate it will spend on external counsel for the entire Supreme Court case by the end of the case?

Response

1. How much has the Scottish Government spent to date on external legal counsel in taking the independence bill to the Supreme Court?
   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 (www.gov.scot)
   
   The spending on the Lord Advocate’s reference to the Supreme Court as published on 22 September 2022 was on external legal fees. An additional £350 has been spent on Supreme Court filing fees.
   
   As set out in our responses to PQ S6W-09691 (available at S6W-09691 | Scottish Parliament Website) and PQ S6W-11576, the Scottish Government intends to proactively publish information about the costs of the litigation and will be publishing updated costs of the reference, including a breakdown of them, in December. 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.
2. How much does the Scottish Government estimate it will spend on external counsel for the entire Supreme Court case by the end of the case?
   While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
   
   Your request asked for an estimate of the total costs of the Supreme Court Reference. As the Reference is ongoing, and the costs may be affected by a number of factors, it is not possible to provide an estimate of the total costs.
   
   This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

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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 http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

Annex B - 202200326934

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