FOI/202300357516 · FOI · not held
Events to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth II costing £18.8m: FOI release
Information requested
The chief secretary to the Treasury, John Glen, yesterday said that the events to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth II last year cost the public an estimated £161.7m. In a written statement, it was estimated that the Scottish Government spent £18.8m out of this total.
1. Please can you break down exactly what the £18.8m was spent on? (i.e. the item/service purchased, how much the item/service cost, the date of purchase, who the item/service was purchased from, whether the item/service was used).
Response
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under Section 17 (information not held) and Section 12(1) (complying will exceed the upper cost limit) of FOISA apply to that information.
The £18.8m was spent by public bodies who were directly involved in the delivery of Operation Unicorn and is detailed in the table which follows. This total was recovered in full from His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) and paid to the Scottish Government, which in turn transferred these costs to each organisation.
We do not hold the information requested regarding the item/service costs for organisations outwith the Scottish Government under exemption Section 17(1) (Information not held), so you are welcome to contact each organisation directly to request this.
Organisation Total (£) Scottish Government Core 1,655,776 Transport Scotland 287,073 Court of the Lord Lyon 64,407 Event Scotland 12,224 Scottish Parliament 123,229 Police Scotland 15,402,786 Scottish Fire and Rescue Service 84,850 Scottish Ambulance Service 216,780 Aberdeenshire Council 148,147 Aberdeen City Council 132,752 Angus Council 31,650 Dundee City Council 88,411 City of Edinburgh Council 506,998 NHS Grampian 509 TOTAL 18,755,592
The cost to the Scottish Government to deliver Operation Unicorn in Scotland, following the death of Her Majesty The Queen, was £1.655m, which was recovered in full from HMT.
We are unable to provide a breakdown of every item/service purchased, the cost, date, supplier and use as this falls under exemption Section 12 (Excessive cost of compliance). We can however break down the Scottish Government costs into seven functional areas, which are detailed in the table which follows:
Functional Area Total Cost (£) SG Employee additional costs, overtime, travel & subsistence* 127,698.38 Contracted Staff Costs 7,772.31 Contracted Services (including Catering, Building Hire, AV Equipment) 20,647.46 Contracted Event Services 1,489,207.98 Communication & Marketing 3,389.59 Infrastructure 106.29 Transport and Vehicle Hire 6,953.50 TOTAL 1,655,775.51
*This does not include normal salary costs for Scottish Government staff.
In this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.
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.
Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Enquiry Unit Email: ceu@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrews House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Detected exemption language
Response While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under Section 17 (information not held) and Section 12(1) (complying will exceed the upper cost limit) of FOISA apply to that information. We do not hold the information requested regarding the item/service costs for organisations outwith the Scottish Government under exemption Section 17(1) (Information not held), so you are welcome to contact each organisation directly to request this. We are unable to provide a breakdown of every item/service purchased, the cost, date, supplier and use as this falls under exemption Section 12 (Excessive cost of compliance). Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.
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