· FOI · released
Money invested in Caledonia Cremations/spend on Ministerial cars:FOI release
Information requested
1) Since the creation of Caledonia Cremations part of the Community Renewal charity and part of a social enterprise initiative how much money has the Scottish Government invested into this business.
2) How much money has the Scottish Government spent on Ministerial cars and other related transport for Ministers for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Response
I enclose some of the information you requested in the annex below. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under section 14(2) of FOISA a public authority is not required to comply with a request for information if it is identical or substantially similar to a request which it has already complied with, unless a reasonable amount of time has elapsed between the two requests. This request is substantially similar to your previous request which we complied with on 12 June 2018. The Scottish Information Commissioner's guidance on repeated requests at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Law/FOISAEIRsGuidance/Section14/Section14Overview.asp says that in considering whether a reasonable period of time has elapsed between the previous request and the new request, there are two questions which will help the authority:
(i) has the information changed? (ii) have the circumstances changed?
In this case, the information we hold is the same as at the time of your previous request. We have also considered the circumstances and have concluded that there has been no significant change. For these reasons, we consider that your request is repeated and we are not obliged to comply with it.
Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already accessible to you. The information you requested in relation to spend on other related transport for Ministers is available from Scottish Government website and is accessible via the links below:
https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20170401072519/http://www.gov.scot/About/People/14944/travel
http://www.gov.scot/About/People/14944/travel/MinisterialCarJourneys
Detected exemption language
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under section 14(2) of FOISA a public authority is not required to comply with a request for information if it is identical or substantially similar to a request which it has already complied with, unless a reasonable amount of time has elapsed between the two requests. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already accessible to you.