FOI/202100247693 Review of 202100241108 · FOI · unclear
Details of Scottish Government official presence at the COP26 conference: FOI Review
Information requested
1) What are the plans for the Scottish Government's official presence at the COP26? By this I mean the location, duration, and physical staff presence? 2) Please provide the overall financial cost of the Scottish Government's official presence at COP26. 2a) This should include the cost of hiring any venue as part of the official presence as the Scottish Government initially did with the Glasgow Science Centre. 2b) Please break this down by expense type, this should include but not be limited to accommodation costs, venue hire, food and drink provision, AV provision, or any other expense linked to the Scottish Government's official presence at COP26. 3) Can you confirm whether this cost will be covered by the UK Government's Cabinet Office as per the terms of the memorandum of understanding between the Scottish Government and the Cabinet Office, or whether this will come from the Scottish Government's budget and not be reimbursed?
Response
I have concluded that the original decision should be upheld, with modifications. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding which is due to resource constraints and workload pressures. Responses to your questions: 1) In the course of my review I found that relevant information held at the time in respect of plans should have been released to you. The information you asked for is as follows: Planned Staff Attendance at COP26 The following tables detail the number of Scottish Government staff who were scheduled to cover shifts across the various venues we controlled during COP26. You should note that a shift pattern was in place, to allow us to manage and facilitate busy days and ensure staff had adequate breaks and travel time. This means that the numbers provided below are head count for the day, not individuals on shift at any given time. Pre COP Planning Period
18-Oct 19-Oct 20-Oct 21-Oct 22-Oct 23-Oct 24-Oct 25-Oct 26-Oct 27-Oct 28-Oct 29-Oct 30-Oct 31-Oct SGCC 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 Lighthouse 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 Edinburgh Castle 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Stirling Castle 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Atlantic Quay 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Blue Zone 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 Total 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 11
COP Fortnight
01-Nov 02-Nov 03-Nov 04-Nov 05-Nov 06-Nov 07-Nov 08-Nov 09-Nov 10-Nov 11-Nov 12-Nov SGCC 4 5 5 5 5 5 2 5 5 5 5 5 Lighthouse 5 5 5 5 5 5 0 6 5 4 4 1 Edinburgh Castle 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 Stirling Castle 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 Atlantic Quay 2 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Blue Zone 4 4 4 4 4 4 0 3 4 3 3 4 Total 15 17 19 17 17 16 4 14 14 14 12 10
Post COP Wash Up Period
13-Nov 14-Nov 15-Nov 16-Nov 17-Nov 18- Nov SGCC 3 3 3 3 3 3 Lighthouse 0 0 0 0 0 0 Edinburgh Castle 0 0 0 0 0 0 Stirling Castle 0 0 0 0 0 0 Atlantic Quay 0 0 0 0 0 0 Blue Zone 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 3 3 3 3 3 3
Planned Ministerial Attendance at COP26 Events The information below provides the number of planned Ministerial events over the COP fortnight, along with the number of individual Ministers who were planned to present, attend or take part in these events. Unfortunately our People and Logistics team have not yet been able to publish the confirmed Ministerial events break down for November due to recent staff absences. However, they have advised that this will be published as soon as possible. You will be able to find that information at the following link when it is published. Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
01 Nov 02 Nov 03 Nov 04 Nov 05 Nov 06 Nov 07 Nov 08 Nov 09 Nov 10 Nov 11 Nov 12 Nov Ministerial Events Planned 34 34 44 46 41 30 28 48 57 54 49 19 No. of Ministers involved 10 10 13 13 12 11 12 15 12 15 12 10
I apologise for not providing this information to you at the time, and I have fed back my review findings to the case handler. 2) a) & b) In the course of my review I found that the overall financial cost you asked for was not known at the time, and so could not have been released to you. Therefore, I am upholding the application of s17(1) (information not held) in relation to our original response to parts 2(a) and (b) of your request. Although it was not made explicit in the original response, where a response to part 2) in its entirety was given along with a response to part 1), the notification under s17(1) did apply to part 2 in full. I understand that you believe that some information on costs would have been held, but your request asked for the total cost, which was not known at the time your request was made. However, It remains the Scottish Government's intention to proactively publish information relating to COP26 as soon as possible and we are currently working with Cabinet Office colleagues to finalise this. Once completed the information will be made available via the Scottish Government website under 'Publications'. I am satisfied that question 3 was answered in our original response, i.e., “Scottish Government programme of events at COP26 will be covered by the Scottish Government’s budget and will not be reimbursed by the UK Government’s Cabinet Office”. 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
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