Creative Tourism and Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund applicants: FOI release (reference 4805)

8 June 2020

6 July 2020

In regard to the recent round of applications for The Creative Tourism and Hospitality Fund I would be obliged if you would advise me of the following: 

1. Total applicants by number and sum applied for.
2. Successful applicants by number and total sum granted.
3. Specifically in the category of micro businesses what was the number and sum applied for
and what was the number of successful applicants and the total sum granted.
4. Please provide the gender breakdown of successful applicants

As you may know, Scottish Enterprise was responsible for managing two grant funding schemes on behalf of the Scottish Government – The Creative, Tourism and Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund (CTHEHF) and the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund (PERF).

We shared this responsibility with other Economic Development Agencies, such as Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), and were given the task of assessing applications submitted by applicants from our geographical areas. A plan is in place to release a full list of awards shortly after the fund process is completed, comprising of lists published on each Economic Development Agency’s corporate website. At present, the fund process is still ongoing, but is expected to conclude shortly.

As it is our intention to make the information you have requested under questions 1, 2 and 3 publicly available, it is exempt under FOISA, in accordance with section 27 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002: information intended for future publication. Section 27(1) exempts information from disclosure if an authority plans to publish the information no later than 12 weeks after the date the request is made. While we are unable to provide you with a specific date for publication in this response, we can assure you that our website will be updated as soon as possible with information that relates to our geographical area; and within the 12 week period.

In response to question 4, we would advise that applications to the funds were open to companies / business entities and as such gender was not applicable. This information is therefore not held, hence Section 17 of FOISA applies.

Section 27(1) – information held with a view to publication

The exemption in section 27(1) allows public authorities to refuse to disclose information if they already plan to publish it within the next 12 weeks – provided it is reasonable to delay disclosing the information until the planned date of publication.

The public interest test

If the exemption is applied, authorities must go on to consider the public interest in relation to the information. This means assessing whether, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest is better served by disclosing or withholding the information. We recognise that there is public interest in authorities applying decision-making processes in a manner that is as open and transparent as possible. We also recognise that publishing information such as funding decisions can enhance accountability and allow for scrutiny. It is for this reason that Scottish Enterprise seeks to proactively publish information on grant funding.

As the fund processes for PERF and CTHEHF are due to conclude shortly, we consider that disclosing partial information before the full data set is available could present a misleading picture. We also wish to be fair to those companies whose applications are currently ongoing, either awaiting decisions on their applications or appeals.In balance therefore, we are of the view that it is in the public interest to apply section 27(1) to this request and uphold our decision to release complete funds data on our website once all funds processes have been completed.

We wish to assure you that the decision to publish complete funds data preceded the date on which we received your request for information.