· FOI · cost limit
Staff employed in communications 2015 to 2017: FOI release
Information requested
1. The number of full time press office/news desk/media relations staff employed by the Scottish Government during the years 2015, 2016 and 2017.
2. The total wage bill of the above staff, broken down by year.
3. The number of contracts awarded to external public relations/marketing companies/individuals by the Scottish Government, broken down by date, company/individual, purpose of contract, length of contract and value of contract.
Response
1. The number of full time press office/news desk/media relations staff employed by the Scottish Government over the years in question is available at Scottish Government website: /publications/foi-18-00939/
Numbers of FTE staff vary throughout the financial year and the figures represent staff numbers on just one day of each year, March 31st. This means that these figures are a 'snapshot': they do not represent either a total number or average number of staff employed in the year. Figures for 2017-18 are still being processed and will be available within 12 weeks. These figures are based on a financial year, as opposed to calendar year in your request.
2. The cost of frontline communications staff/press officers in the last three years to the most recent financial year is available at Scottish Government website: /publications/cost-of-frontline-communications-staff/
We intend to publish the costs for 2017-18 on the Scottish Government website within 12 weeks.
3. The number of contracts awarded to external public relations/ marketing companies/ individuals by the Scottish Government, broken down by date, company/ individual, purpose of contract, length of contract and value of contract. While you have not specified a time period, we have taken this from Q1 for the period covering 2015-2017:
Contract Agency Date Awarded Contract Value Tram Inquiry - PR 3x1 30-Jan-15 £50,000 Safer Roads – PR Smarts 10-Jun-15 £125,000 Safer Communities - PR Consolidated 15-Jun-15 £150,000 International - Digital Whitespace 07-Sep-15 £150,000 Healthier – Digital Union 09-Sep-15 £300,000 Safer Marketing Cluster - Research TNS 04-Nov-15 £350,000 Smarter Cluster - Research TNS 30-Nov-15 £200,000 Media Planning, Buying and Associated Services - Wealthier & Fairer, Safer, International Republic of Media 10-Feb-16 £2,500,000 Parental Audience - Research TNS 15-Feb-16 £100,000 Media Planning, Buying and Associated Services - Healthier, Greener, Smarter Carat 28-Apr-16 £4,600,000 Smarter Wealthier & Fairer 2016 - PR BIG 19-May-16 £200,000 Healthier Scotland 2016 - PR Consolidated 01-Jun-16 £300,000 Greener 2016 - Digital Whitespace 03-Jun-16 £250,000 Health Improvement 2016 - Advertising Story 08-Jun-16 £600,000 Smarter Wealthier & Fairer 2016 - Advertising The Gate 28-Jun-16 £500,000 Safer 2016 - Digital The Gate 21-Jul-16 £450,000 Safer 2016 - Advertising Leith 24-Jul-16 £650,000 Healthier Scotland 2016 - Field Kommando 03-Aug-16 £200,000 Smarter 2016 - Digital The Gate 13-Aug-16 £500,000 Healthier Scotland 2016 - Partnerships Union 04-Sep-16 £250,000 CEHP 2016 - Advertising Leith 07-Sep-16 £750,000 Parental Audience - Advertising Union 29-Sep-16 £100,000 Parental Audience - Digital Union 06-Oct-16 £50,000 International - Research TNS 25-May-17 £20,000 International – PR 3x1 13-Sep-17 £175,000 Parental Audience - PR Stripe 14-Sep-17 £80,000 Parental Audience - Creative Services Union 15-Sep-17 £600,000 Parental Audience - Digital Union 28-Sep-17 £600,000 WW100 – PR Smarts 03-Oct-17 £60,000 Migration – PR Pagoda 16-Nov-17 £50,000 Contract Value total: £14,910,000
For further information on what these contracts were utilised for, please consult the following:
/publications/foi-17-01529/
You asked for "The number of contracts awarded to external public relations/marketing companies/individuals by the Scottish Government" as a whole.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The reason for this is that to locate and retrieve that information we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government. It may help if I explain that we file our information according to the subject matter, not by reference to the names of organisations with whom we have corresponded. 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.
You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. For example, you could specify the subject matter(s) of the correspondence you are interested in or restrict your request to a specific business area of the Scottish Government, as this would allow us to limit the searches that would require to be conducted. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at:
http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx
Detected exemption language
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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