Costs of FOI and publicity

Heather

Thanks for your email. To allow us to process it, I would be grateful if
you could clarify some points.

Firstly, when you say "Department", do you mean the core Scottish
Government (ie the whole organisation) or our Communications Directorate
alone?

And on specific questions:
1, 3, 5 - Our professional external communications staff - marketing and
press - work in the Communications Directorate. There will, of course,
be staff in other parts of the organisation who carry out external
communications with stakeholders etc, but I expect it would be really
difficult to quantify this and probably over the cost threshold - are
you content for us just to give you details for professional external
communications staff in the Communications Directorate?

3, 4 - Do you mean salary costs?

2, 4 - Do you mean FoI staff generally or dedicated Communications FoI
staff?

5 - Do you mean total staff costs - ie including non-staff costs - or do
you mean things like external advertising campaigns etc?

6 - Staff across the organisation deal with FoI all the time and it
would be really difficult to quantify this and probably over the cost
threshold - are you content for us just to give you details for
dedicated Freedom of Information staff?

Also, are you looking for all questions to be broken down for three
years?

Thanks

David

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Heather

Thank you for your request of July 28 seeking, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000: "the Department's staffing and funding for
publicity and communications (including any contracted-out services
of this description). I would like this information broken down
annually for the past three years up to the time this request is
answered. The years may be financial or calendar, whichever is
convenient, but please keep them consistent."

We have dealt with your request under the terms of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 as that is the Act which Scottish Ministers come within the scope of. I wrote back to you on July 30, asking for clarification of some of your questions and you responded on August 18. Apologies for the delay in replying.

For the purposes of your enquiry, we are referring to the core Scottish Government and, in the answers to questions 1 and 3 only, specialist external communications staff working in our Communications Directorate - you were also, where possible, seeking a breakdown for the past three years.

1. The number of staff (full-time equivalent) working in marketing,
external communications and press offices.

Press Office Marketing
1st April 2006 40.2 8
1st April 2007 39.6 8
1st April 2008 42.6 9
1st August 2009 41.8 11.6

The figures are a snapshot at the particular point in time. We do not have a separate 'external communications' team. The Marketing figures include staff who work in our Digital (Internet) team.

2. The number of dedicated Freedom of Information officers
(full-time equivalent). You confirmed you mean dedicated FTE Freedom of Information Officers.

See answer to question 4.

3. Total staffing cost of marketing, external communications and
press officers. You confirmed you mean salary costs and "other benefits in kind".

Press Office Marketing
2006/07 £2,042,910 £521,168
2007/08 £2,141,951 £539,632
2008/09 £2,107,159 £611,593

The figures show total employer staffing costs, which include salaries and any allowances paid during the financial year; e.g. overtime or on-call allowance. The Marketing figures include staff who work in our Digital (Internet) team.

4. Total staffing cost of dedicated Freedom of Information staff. You confirmed you mean salary costs and "other benefits in kind".

Freedom of Information requests are answered by the policy area responsible for the subject matter of the request. The SG also has an FOI Unit (staff numbers and salary costs of the Unit are detailed in the table below), the remit of which includes:
* training on FOI matters;
* providing general and case specific guidance to staff on the handling of requests;
* ensuring that appropriate processes are in place to support request handling; and
* advising the Minister for Parliamentary Business on the broader policy of FOI.

Year Full Time Equivalent Cost (£)
06/07 7.5 316,284
07/08 7.5 302,352
08/09 7.4 255,703
Note - due to a reduction in the number of higher graded staff, total costs have gone down.

5. Total spending on marketing, external communications and press
offices. You confirmed you mean "total costs, which would include internal and ALSO external [advertising campaigns etc] if for example publicity or newsletters are contracted out."
Press Office Marketing

2006/07 £3,245,894 £987,397
2007/08 £3,191,669 £993,033
2008/09 £3,151,965 £1,161,270

These figures include both specialist and non-specialist staffing figures and also include any associated non-staffing costs; e.g. office support costs, contracts, licenses, supplies and services. The 2008/09 Marketing figures include the Digital Intranet team, which was established in 2008.

Marketing Campaign Costs

The overall marketing spend for the three financial years in question (including media, production, research, creative fees, PR, web, agency staff fees, editorials and ancillary costs), was:
2006/07 - £13,277,247
2007/08 - £12,819,608
2008/09 - £13,043,574

These figures are inclusive of VAT.

6. Total spending on Freedom of Information. You confirmed you were looking for just details for dedicated Freedom of Information officers.

We do not collect information other than staff costs (for instance, we do not record time spent on individual tasks) so in relation to your question "total spending on Freedom of Information" no further information is held other than what has been supplied at questions 2 and 4.

7. If the department produces a newsletter then the name of this
publication and all associated costs.

The Scottish Government does not produce a newsletter for its staff.

I hope this is helpful - please come back to me if you require any further information.

If you are unhappy with this response, you may ask us to carry out an internal review, by writing to Stella Manzie, DG Finance & Corporate Services, Area 3-D93, Victoria Quay, Edinburgh EH6 6QQ. Your request should explain why you wish a review to be carried out, and should be made within 40 working days of receipt of this letter, and we will reply within 20 working days of receipt. If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to make a formal complaint to the Scottish Information Commissioner.

David Hamilton
Corporate Communications
Scottish Government

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